Podcasts about earth elemental

Previously on Saga of the Jewels…The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. Ryn discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. He sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, and VISH the poppy-seed-addicted assassin. Together the adventurers decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the evil EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, borne by Nuthea. They have now come to the land of FARR where they intend to compete in a hand-to-hand fighting tournament in order to attempt to win its grand prize, the EARTH EMERALD…EPISODE THIRTY-TWO: TRAININGSix days until the Tournament.Nuthea surveyed the garden area of the little manse they had been given to lodge in.A wooden boundary-fence marked off an area about twenty metres wide and long. A patio floor of cream-coloured stone reflected the heat of the Farrian Summer morning sunshine. Aside from that it was bare except for a little ornamental pond and some potted plants off in the far corner.This will have to do, she thought.She regarded her troops, as she was coming to think of them: Ryn, Sagar, Elrann, Vish and Cid all stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a line facing her.She hadn't even asked them to do that; they had just done it naturally when she had called them outside. She would make a fighting squad of them yet.“Okay, team,” she said. “The Governor has said that we can enter four people into the tournament, without us even having to go through the qualifying heats. So the first thing we need to do is choose which four of us will enter.”“Well obviously I'm the first choice,” said Sagar, putting his hands on his hips and sticking out his chest a little.Nuthea saw Ryn open his mouth but she jumped in first. “May I just remind you, Captain Sagar, that the Governor has told us that this will be a tournament of unarmed combat?”The pirate deflated ever so slightly, then frowned. “So what? I'm still the best fighter among us. Well, maybe joint best. I suppose the scumsucker is alright at fighting too…”“I have a question,” said Ryn, ignoring Sagar and putting up his hand like a school pupil. “Will we be allowed to use our elemental projection powers?”“I…” Nuthea hesitated. “I'm not sure. I didn't ask about that.”“Of course we will,” said Sagar. “Now that they've got the Emerald, you can bet your arse that the Farrians will be using theirs. Hells, I wouldn't be surprised if they enter Baldy into the tournament. Didn't the Governor guy say that he was their strongest monk? And now he's got earth powers, there's no doubt he'll use them…”Sagar's voice trailed off. He was seeming less and less confident by the moment.“Well if that's the case,” spoke up Elrann, “then I think it's pretty obvious who we're going to enter, isn't it, princess-girl? I mean, I can handle myself in a fight, sure, but I much prefer to have my pistols and whip with me. I'm not so sure that I could take on a trained fighter as strong as monk-man, especially when he's got earth powers now. The logical choice for who we enter is: you, farmboy and pirate-man, because of all your Jewel-thingamy-powers, and the bountyhunter because of his badass fighting skills.”Yes, thought Nuthea, that is the logical choice, except what you don't know is that I'm blocked.“How does everyone feel about that?” she said out loud.Sagar folded his arms and nodded, clearly still trying to communicate an air of nonchalance.“I'll fight,” said Ryn, rubbing his hand.“Shadowfinger Vish?” Nuthea said.Vish shrugged. “You know what I want. As long as you give it to me, I will fight for you. I have fought in ‘tournaments' before, and won them.”“You have?!”“Yes. Both before I became a slave to the Empire, and since.”“Well,” said Elrann, “that settles it then, doesn't it?”“Hold on,” said Nuthea, “let us give everyone a chance to speak. Grandfather, do you wish to fight?”Cid's bushy eyebrows rose. He looked surprised to even be asked. “Oh goodness, no, Granddaughter, I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. I am happy to sit this one out.”“Even though you are more experienced than the rest of us and might not have to face the same obstacles in preparing for the tournament?” Nuthea tried to convey extra meaning through emphasis of the word and a tip of her head to one side.Cid's eyes glittered, and she knew he had understood her. “Ah. Yes; even so. Do not worry. We have a week–I'm sure that is plenty of time for you to improve and to overcome any obstacles you might be facing in the way of your peak performance.”Nuthea nodded, taking his meaning in turn. “Then it is settled. Unless a better idea presents itself for whatever reason, myself, Ryn, Captain Sagar and Shadowfinger Vish will enter the tournament to compete for, and win, the Earth Emerald.” She turned to Vish. “Shadowfinger Vish, you are clearly the b…'' She paused, not wanting to set Sagar off again. “You are clearly highly proficient at hand-to-hand combat, especially when elemental projection is taken out of the calculations. Will you train us in what you know of unarmed combat?”Vish's eyes were blank and unreadable above his face scarf as the rest of them awaited his response.“Will you give me poppy?” he said to Cid in return.“You know that you are meant to be coming off of it,” said Cid, “which is what you really want, remember? But yes, as part of withdrawing slowly, you can have some poppy in a week and a half. After the tournament.”The Shadowfinger was silent again, his eyes still blank.“I will train you,” he said at last.“Thank you,” said Nuthea.“Poodoo to that!” said Sagar, throwing up his hands. “I don't need any fighting lessons, especially from an ex-Imperial scumsucker like him. I'm off to go and find myself a drink.” He began to stalk towards the manse, then stopped. “You coming, woman?”Elrann's brows knotted. “Why would I be?”“Cause you agreed to go for a drink with me the other night?”Elrann scratched her chin. “Oh, right. Yeah, but not now. We said we would go in five days, on our day off from training before the tournament starts. I want to train with the others and see what the bountyhunter has to teach us.”“Whatever,” said Sagar, “suit yourself.”The door slammed behind him as he left the garden-courtyard. He was beginning to irk Nuthea somewhat.She refocused on the task at hand. “Here we go then,” she said, “Vish, you swap with me.”She traded places with the Shadowfinger to join the end of the lineup next to Cid, and Vish took the place in front of them all, facing them.The rest of them awaited Vish's first instruction.Vish sighed deeply, a sound like the last breath going out of a corpse.“Alright, listen,” he said in his slightly exotic-accented, guttural tones. “I am good at fighting, but not for the reasons you think. When the…untrained think about schooling in the fighting arts, they imagine it is all about learning special routines and practicing certain steps, like learning to dance. And there is some of that. But a fight, a real fight, is not like a dance. In a real fight, any routines you might have learned, any special techniques with grand names like the monk performed, any semblance of control or poise you might have, go out the window, and you just become another animal trying to kill all the other animals to stay alive. And the fastest, most brutal, most vicious animal is the one that kills first, and so the one who gets to stay alive a little longer. Do you understand?”Nuthea blinked at the Shadowfinger. It was the most words she had ever heard him say all at once. He clearly knew, and thought, a lot about this subject.None of the others said anything either. They must be as surprised as she was.“I will assume that you do understand,” said Vish, giving them all a withering look. “All that said, there is some advantage to be had by rehearsing certain routines and steps, not because in an actual fight it will be possible to replicate them exactly, but because by rehearsing them strength is built, and because your unconscious memory might mean that small elements of the routines are reproduced in combat by reflex in potentially effective ways. All of you, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and bend your knees slightly.”They did so.“Now bend your arms at the elbow and make fists with your hands, with your thumbnails pointing up, like this.”They did so.“Good. This will be your first rudimentary practice exercise: punching. Now, with me, twist your fist round and punch the air in front of you, alternating right and left hands. Right! Left! Right! Left!”Nuthea punched the air along with the others, falling into the rhythm of following Vish's commands easily enough. She had done something similar to this with Evisca, her swordmistress at the palace, when she had been taught weaponry as a teenager, before she had been allowed to handle a blade. It seemed like a fairly basic exercise, but presumably Vish would work up to the more advanced techniques.Just then a bright blazing ball of fire shot past Vish and crashed into the fence several feet behind him, burning a hole in it and setting it on fire.“Oops,” said Ryn.“What in all the hells of all the gods are you doing?” Vish snapped at him, shouting through his face covering. He hadn't moved an inch in response to the fireball, but he was furious nonetheless.“Sorry…” stammered Ryn. “I just suddenly thought ‘Hey, what if I combined this punch with a fire projection?', and then I accidentally did it…”Nuthea put a hand over her face.It seems this is going to be even more difficult than I had anticipated…*Four days before the Tournament.Huld worked his way carefully through the forms of The Circumference Of The Earth, as he had done thousands of times before, only this time whenever he came to a transfer of energy, he combined it with some variety of manipulation of the training room's earthen floor below him.He stamped down hard with his right foot, completing ‘Replanting The Tree', and as vibration rippled through his foot he willed a square block of earth to rise up out of the floor in front of him.Improvising, he stepped forwards with his other foot and delivered ‘Rooted Strike' to the earthen block with his left fist. As he connected with the block, he willed it forwards and it shot pleasingly along the training room floor before exploding against its stone wall in a shower of dirt.Huld remained still in his battle pose, breathing heavily. Sweat clung to him. It was quite an exertion adding earth manipulation to his normal battle forms, he had discovered. Though it was worth it. And he had discovered he was very good at it. Who else was there better suited to incorporating the powers granted by the Farrian Emerald into his fighting manoeuvres? He had always been first in his class growing up at the monastery, even if that was because he had something to prove which the other novices did not. He had made it into the elite tier of monks privileged with watching over the Emperor, the Greenrobes. And he had been selected to be the Emperor's personal bodyguard, not anyone else. It was entirely appropriate that he be the first in Farr in two generations to be granted earth manipulation abilities and to train with them, and that he should be highly skilled at doing so.He should be happy.And yet, he couldn't quite relax into it.Something was bothering him, throwing off his focus.What?The foreigners.He came out of his stance from Rooted Strike and sat on the floor for a moment to catch his breath, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.The thought of the foreigners had been throwing off his focus slightly, lingering at the back of his mind like a fly buzzing just on the edge of his hearing.It wasn't that he was afraid of losing to them in this tournament the Governor had organised, he thought as he looked at the scuff marks his earth-block had left on the far wall and the pile of brown dirt and dust it had disintegrated into from the force of its impact. He wasn't.He knew he could beat every one of them in single hand to hand combat, even the ‘ex'-Imperial Vish. Even the fireboy with his flame projection abilities, which were apparently super effective against creatures of earth and so probably also against people who were ‘earth-aligned' as Huld now was.He had watched each of them carefully during their time in the Shrine, and studied their fighting styles closely. The Imperial was highly trained, ruthless and dangerous, to be sure, but he was still no match for Huld. And the boy was almost completely untrained. He appeared to have very little hand-to-hand fighting prowess at all, if any. If Huld stayed out of the way of his fire attacks, which he was confident he would be able to do more than easily, then defeating the boy would be a walk in a peace garden.No, it wasn't that which was bothering him. It was something else about the foreigners…What, then?He blinked with surprise at the realisation.It was that, after spending the better part of two days with them, after being stuck inside the Shrine to Eto with them and having to work together with them to make their way to the top of it, solve its puzzles, escape from its traps and defeat the Earth Elemental, he had found that in the end they were actually not that bad after all.Blessed Eto, he thought, I even almost liked them by the end…It was a difficult revelation to stomach. Raised in a monastery in the second-but uppermost level of Shun Pei, Huld had always been kept safely away from the filthy foreigners who travelled and traded in the lower levels, whom he viewed as a barely necessary evil that the Governor only allowed into the city for economic reasons. His ambition, insofar as he had been allowed to nurture one, had always been to move up, not down, in Shun Pei, and until recently he had been entirely successful in it.But now that he had actually spent some time with some filthy foreigners, they didn't seem that bad after all. They were still ‘filthy', to be sure, with their vulgar expressions and their crude attempts at fighting and their strange customs and gods.But, he had found, they had also turned out also to be people just like him. Of course they were. They talked and laughed and joked and had good ideas and bad ideas, strengths and weaknesses. How could he have not seen that before?And if they were people just like him, maybe what they were proposing to do wasn't so stupid and wrong after all? Maybe it would be the most sensible course of action to just give them the Emerald so that they could hide it from Morekemia and join it together with the others in order to stop the Emperor?“Impressive,” said a voice from the entry doorway to the training room.Huld started, recognising the voice, then immediately shifted himself into a kneeling bow, touching his forehead to the floor.“My Lord Governor!” he said, cheeks heating with the secret knowledge that his master had taken him unawares while he had been entertaining such ridiculous thoughts. How long had he been watching?“Up,” the Governor commanded.Huld got to his feet and stood straight as the Governor walked onto the floor of the training room, hands held behind his back. He wasn't wearing his hat, and his shaved head shone slightly in the light from the candles that stood in their sconces at the four corners of the room.The Governor stood a few feet away from him. “So, you have started combining your forms with your new earth-manipulation gift.”He's been watching me for a while, then. “Yes, Lord Governor. Did…did I do wrongly?”“No,” the Governor said calmly. “Show me.”Huld masked his surprise. “Yes, Lord Governor.” He spread his feet and dropped into chocobo stance, took a deep breath, then began the first movement of The Circumference Of The Earth, bringing his left hand up and into a descending arc–“Not like that!” the Governor barked impatiently. “Show me properly! Try and hit me, you fool!”Unable to hide his surprise this time, Huld's serene mask broke into a puzzled frown. “Lord Governor?”“Am I speaking some language other than common?” the Governor said, frowning above his formidable jowls. “Try. And. Hit. Me.”Huld gulped. He had heard rumours that the Governor had trained in the fighting arts, but his master had never commanded him to do anything like this before. Still, he could do nothing but obey.Better to make it a reasonably gentle strike. Nothing too impactful. Huld had been first in his class, after all, he reminded himself again, and was Farr's best soldier-monk, by the Governor's own boast.Hoping to get this embarrassing ordeal over with quickly, Huld crossed the floor that lay between him and the Governor in four quick steps and aimed a simple close-fisted punch with his right hand at the Governor's chest.The Governor's left hand whipped out to block the punch, palming Huld's forearm away, then before Huld knew what was happening the Governor had brought his hand around and back to himself in a circle, then thrust it out again at Huld's chest.The floor hit Huld hard in the back.He coughed a couple of times, chest smarting where the Governor had struck him.He floored me, Huld thought as he inspected the muddy brown of the training room ceiling, which he had never seen from this angle before. He actually floored me. With one punch!“I meant that I wanted you to try and hit me with an earth manipulation attack,” the Governor said.Huld got up and brushed himself down. The rumours were true, then! More than true. Huld hadn't ever been floored like that before, not even in his early years of training at the monastery. The Governor was an incredibly skilled and strong fighter. He had humiliated Huld with a single blow while barely batting an eyelid. Huld had better do what he was being asked.No longer pulling his punch, he performed the same move as he had improvised at the end of The Circumference Of The Earth, stamping the ground to raise up a large square block of earth from it, then punching it.The earthen block shot towards where the Governor stood a few paces away……then stopped dead still in place in front of him.“That is more like it,” said the Governor from behind the block.What?Huld had expected the Governor to leap out of the way, or to hit the block and explode it with a blow. Not stop it.The block shot back along the ground towards Huld.“Catch it!” yelled the Governor.Huld almost didn't react in time, but just before the block of earth made impact with him he got his hand up and reached out with his mind, willing for the earthen block to stop. It came to rest about an inch from his face.“Good,” said the Governor from somewhere behind it. “Dear me, Huld, one little surprise and all your training almost goes out of the window. Return the block to the ground.”Huld wasn't sure what the Governor meant, but when he thought about it he realised what he was being ordered to do. He willed the block downwards, back into the floor, and it moved at his mental command, rejoining the earth that they stood on, sinking down to become a part of it again.Across the floor, the green-robed, stocky form of the Governor stood still, hands behind his back. His master favoured him with a half-smile from one side of his mouth.“That's it,” he said. “Don't be so surprised that I have earth manipulation abilities too. I've had them since long before you retrieved the Emerald.”I'm more than capable of defending myself, Huld suddenly remembered the Governor saying back in his chambers when the foreigners had been there last. He had wondered then what that comment had meant, but he had never imagined the full extent of its implications.“But how, Lord Governor?” he asked.“Who do you think it was that placed the Emerald in the Shrine to Eto in the first place?” the Governor snapped irritably. He began to pace slowly back and forth across the training room floor as he spoke. “I did, as a young man, when ordered to do so by Governor Restra. I was a monk like you once, Huld. I swore the vows of service. But one's service to Farr can take a Farrian to many different places. After I hid the Emerald in the old Shrine, I was ordered to change my name and begin a political career. By the time Governor Restra's term of office finished, he had so manoeuvred me that I was his obvious successor, so the High Council voted to put me in charge.”“If I may be so bold, Lord Governor…” Huld said, “...why?”“Because the knowledge of the Emerald's whereabouts and how to obtain it was too important to entrust to anyone but the Governor of Farr. I grew too old to be able to retrieve it myself, though I do still retain, ahem, some fighting skill.”Huld's back twinged. The Governor certainly did retain some fighting skill.“However,” the Governor continued, “I knew I could count on you to retrieve it for me.”Huld thought of telling him how much the foreigners had helped, but he decided to hold his tongue. He continued to listen like an obedient soldier, though he wasn't sure where this was going.“Governor Restra thought to hide the Emerald away,” said the Governor, “because he thought that would keep Farr safe from those from elsewhere who would seek to steal it, and because he thought its power was too dangerous to be used. Do you understand?”Huld nodded. “Yes, Lord Governor.”“But he was wrong,” said the Governor.Huld held his jaw shut tight to hide his puzzlement.“Restra thought that it would benefit us to hide the Jewel away, where nobody could get to it, not even us! I too once thought as he did, and as you clearly do too now.”Huld opened his mouth to protest.“Do not deny it!” the Governor barked, cutting him off. “As I say, I once thought as you do too, but I see now that Governor Restra was foolish and misguided. We hid the Emerald away, and filthy foreigners came asking for it anyway. And not just any regular old filthy foreigners, but foreigners with their own elemental manipulation abilities!” The Governor spat loudly onto the floor in front of him, as if it had made a foul taste in his mouth just to speak of them. His spit landed in a little puddle and began to seep into the earthen floor. “And they tell us that the Emperor of Morekemia has learned of the Jewels too, and is looking for them! What is the correct response to this, I ask you?”Silence held the training room. Huld thought that the Governor's question had been rhetorical, but then he realised a response was expected.“Ah,” he said. He weighed his options carefully. “To fight, Lord Governor?”“To fight!” said the Governor. He had stopped pacing and stood looking at Huld now, his green eyes verdant and wild as he raised his chin. “Thank you, Huld! There is hope for you yet! Yes, ‘to fight'! Why should we sit by with our nation's Primeval Jewel hidden away in a temple while the rest of the world runs around after the others, squabbling with themselves over who gets the most territory? If we had continued to do that, it would only have been a matter of time before some filthy foreigners came looking and retrieved it for themselves, or grew strong enough to conquer us with their own Jewel-powers! The Jewels are not to be hidden, Huld, they are to be used! If we make use of the Emerald, there will be no nation that can overthrow us!”Huld's jaw was starting to ache from how hard he was holding it tight. Discomfort churned in his stomach. The Governor had grown increasingly animated as he had been speaking, working himself up into a most un-Farrian passion. He knew that the Governor was a hot-tempered and impatient man, but he had never seen him like this.He had to do it. He had to voice his objection.“But Lord Governor…” Huld said carefully, “it seems to me from my experience with the foreigners that certain Jewel-elements are vulnerable to attack from others–”“Nonsense!” erupted the Governor, almost shouting now. Huld should not have questioned him. “You only think that because you are young in your earth-gift. Properly trained, a Farrian earth-wielder is unbeatable. How could we not be? We are the greatest fighters in the whole of Mid! Fighting is our very way of life! It is arrogant of any other nation to even think to hope that they could challenge us, let alone Morekemia! This is what you must demonstrate at the tournament in four days' time. When you defeat all of those foreigners in combat, you will show not only our citizens but the whole of Mid that Farr is supreme and that we will not be bested in combat. News of your victory and your abilities will spread to the other nations, and nobody, not even Morekemia, will think to challenge us militarily! And even if they do, we will be waiting for them, and we will crush them with our earth manipulation. Our army will be more than ready to do so once they have all been touched with the Emerald and trained by you as their Military Commander!”Huld bowed his head. “Yes, Lord Governor,” he said. Huld could see no other appropriate response. He knew of no other. Military Commander, he thought. That was a step-up even from ‘Personal Bodyguard to the Governor'.“Good,” said the Governor. “Now come. You have clearly taken to earth-manipulation quickly, just as I did. You have the basics well enough, but I have the advantage of many more years of training in fighting with earth. There are a number of advanced techniques I have to show you. And you will no doubt invent your own. That manipulation you performed on the foreigners in my chamber, for example–hardening the earth around their feet–was clever, but I have long since moved far beyond things like that. Let me show you. Take Dragon stance.”Huld did so, positioning himself side-on to the Governor, pulling one fist back low with a bent elbow for the ‘tail', and holding the other one up with his arm at a right-angle, with two bent fingers jutting up out of his fist, the ‘horns' of the dragon.“Good,” said the Governor. “Now, watch.”The Governor began to demonstrate his advanced techniques, training him, and Huld followed obediently, making the movements that his master prescribed and holding back from showing his astonishment at the techniques, participating wholeheartedly.Well, almost wholeheartedly.In the soil of his heart, a tiny seed of doubt had been planted. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sagaofthejewels.substack.com

We're kicking off our Elemental mini-series by digging into Earth—just in time for Earth Day!

Earth Elemental Healing (432Hz) Music ~ Grounding, Growth, Prosperity, Strength

Previously on Saga of the Jewels…The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. Ryn discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. Ryn sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, and VISH the poppy-seed-addicted assassin. Together the companions decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the evil EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, borne by Nuthea. They have now come to the land of FARR where, guided by the Farrian monk HULD, they have entered the ancient abandoned Earth Temple in order to attempt to retrieve the EARTH EMERALD…EPISODE TWENTY-EIGHT: EARTH ELEMENTAL“I guess we needed that boulder after all,” the purple-haired engineer-girl was saying. “It pressed down the switch at the bottom of the pit, which opened those doors.”“Hmph,” spoke the ponytailed skypirate. “I could have done that. I would have found it eventually.”The engineer girl rolled her eyes at him.Huld was just grateful that they seemed to have made it through the trap-gauntlet, for now at least. He was astonished at the variety and ingenuity of the traps and designs that had been built into this shrine to Eto. Had they been part of the original architect's intention, he wondered, or had the ‘Earth Emerald' formed those, too, around itself, as the old man had talked about?“Come on everyone,” said the fireboy, who seemed to be the leader of the group when it wasn't goldengirl or ponytail. “Let's see what's through these doors.”Huld walked forwards with the others through the steel doors.Now the pool of moving light from the collection of glow-worms in the floor, which they had been chasing for so long, moved with them, staying under their feet and following them through the doors.Beyond the doors it lit up another large, high-ceilinged chamber much like the one they had been in two floors ago.Only this chamber was somewhat smaller, in terms of its length and width, if not its height.And while it had the same brown-coloured earthen floor as the rest of the Shrine, this chamber's walls and ceiling were made of stone, grey in the light from the worm-pool. There was no exit off of it that Huld could see.“I think we've reached the top level of the Temple that we saw outside!” said goldengirl.“About time, too,” said ponytail.“But what do we do now we're here?” said fireboy. “Shouldn't the Emerald be in this room somewhere?”“Hopefully…” said the old man. “But there might be one final puzzle, one last challenge…”“Well that's just great…” grumbled ponytail.“Hey, what's that over there?” said goldengirl.She was pointing at a small object on the floor in the centre of the room.Huld walked over to it with the others in the light from the glow-worms and inspected it.Growing right in the centre of the chamber was what to all appearances seemed to be a tiny plant.The plant jutted a few inches out of the earthen floor, its stalk and presumably roots extending down into it, green in the glow-worm light. It had a few little leaves which grew off the main stalk. It was more of a shoot than a plant, really. The whole thing did not look bigger than Huld's hand.As they got closer to it, the edge of the light-pool touched the plant, and its leaves twitched.“Did you see that?!” said engineer-girl.All of a sudden the pool of light dissolved as the glow-worms all shot apart in different directions, trailing streaks of brightness across the floor as they moved away from the central point where they had been gathered. They moved faster than the party had yet seen, and made straight for the stone walls of the chamber.Which they began to eat through.The worms moved up through the walls, creating vertical lines of light in them, flaring white in the process just as they had done when they had eaten through the stone doors that had given them access to the previous chamber.None of the foreigners said anything, apparently too surprised and awestruck to do so, as Huld was. Instead they held up their hands to shield their eyes against the incredibly bright light.From behind Huld's own upraised hand, the light moved up higher, till it was coming from above. Huld had to lift his hand higher above his head to block it out and stop it from blinding him. The worms must have eaten a path up to and through the ceiling of the chamber.Then the light started to move downwards again. The worms were methodically eating through the walls of the chamber from the top, down.A deep rumble sounded, punctuated by the occasional louder rise in pitch and volume, and the floor started to vibrate. It sounded like the walls were starting to crumble and fall away as the worms ate through them.And a new light had joined the glow-worm-light now, a warmer, yellower light, all-encompassing, impossible to block out with his hand.The sun.Warm air enveloped Huld's face.He dropped his hand.As the last of the stone walls crumbled away, Huld looked round at the blue Farrian sky, the white clouds drifting aimlessly through it, the canopy-sea of green treetops that they were raised a little higher than on this earthen platform, the pinnacle of Eto's magnificent ziggurat, which had now been entirely stripped of its top floor's stone walls.The foreigners had dropped their hands too, and were looking round and staring open-mouthed at the scene like idiots.“Well, that was pretty cool,” said engineer-girl.“Indeed,” said the old man.“We're definitely at the top of the Shrine then…” said fireboy pointlessly.“Yeah, but where's the Jewel?” said ponytail.“Stay patient, Captain Sagar,” said goldengirl. “I'm sure it's around here somewhere.”The Shadowfinger, Vish, stayed silent, and barely ever said anything, Huld noted again. His one redeeming trait.“Er, guys…” said engineer-girl. “You'd better take a look at this…”Huld turned to see what she was talking about.Behind them, the plant in the floor, which they had been distracted from while the walls had been being eaten away, was growing.It had grown so fast that it was already as tall as engineer-girl, a much larger stalk slithering upwards into the air, more shoots and leaves sprouting off it and unfurling before their eyes, its base widening, thickening, pushing at the earth in which it was encased, roots starting to pop out of it like clenched fingers.“What in the hells?” said ponytail.The ground began to rumble again, then it split and cracked under their feet, a hundred jagged cracks zigzagging out from the plant's base.They stumbled backwards to where the ground remained firm, gazes still locked on the rapidly growing plant.Now it was twice Huld's height, and still growing, climbing, widening, not showing any signs of slowing.Then it roared.Can plants roar? Huld thought.They fell onto their backsides as in front of them even more of the floor split and crumbled away, and up out of it rose an enormous green plant monster.That was the only word Huld had for it. A tangled mass of knotted green and brown shoots and vines covered all over in leaves, even with bits of wood and branches discernible in the huge, seething mass of it, the plant monster was humanoid in shape, and at the top of its torso the shoots and vines were twisted into something that resembled a head, with an open space for a mouth which emitted an unnatural roar somewhere between that of a lion and a dragon.The little shoot sticking up from the floor, it turned out, had only been the tip of one of its fingers, which were each now a shoot of their own, at the ends of long arms of twisted vines. The plant monster had come up onto the platform hand-first, and used its arm to pull the rest of itself out of the ground.It stood before them now in the sunlight and open air atop the earthen platform at the summit of the earth shine, terrifying in its inhumanity, and roared at them again. The earth floor had re-formed itself underneath the monster to make the platform flat and complete once more.“What do we do?!” fireboy was yelling desperately. “What do we do?!“We fight it, you stupid pup!” ponytail shouted back. “Use your damn fire, quick!”“It's an Earth Elemental!” called the old man. “It must be the guardian of the Emerald!”“Watch out!” cried goldengirl.The plant monster slammed a huge leafy hand down at the fireboy, but he managed to leap out of the way of it in time and it only smacked against empty floor.“Fire!” shouted fireboy, appropriately enough, and thrust out his hands in a gesture not entirely dissimilar from the Strike That Moves Mountains. Maybe he was copying it. Huld wouldn't put it past a filthy foreigner to do something like that.Flames leapt from fireboy's hands and engulfed the monster's torso, setting it alight. It stepped back from fireboy and roared again, and Huld wondered if he didn't detect pain in the roar this time.“It works!” yelled goldengirl. “More of that, Ryn! Can you help us out?”“Help you out with what?”“By setting our weapons on fire again!”“Why don't I just attack it myself?!”“Don't be greedy, pup!” yelled ponytail. “Don't hog all the glory! There's enough to go around!”“Alright...come here, everyone!”The other foreigners all rushed over to the boy while the plant monster roared and staggered around on fire at the other end of the platform. They drew their weapons, made mainly of steel.“Put them all together!” commanded fireboy.The foreigners all held their blades to each other so they touched, except in engineer-girl's case, who instead contributed a metal whip. The goldengirl and the old man carried simple, straight swords. Ponytail put in two curved foreign blades. Vish had a black Imperial weapon.“Fir-AHHH!” the fireboy yelled, his magic-word cracking and turning into a shout of exertion. Again fire leapt from his outstretched hands, this time engulfing the upheld weapons in a localised inferno. Then the fire ceased streaming from his hands, but it remained burning on the blades, the whip.The monster roared again, more loudly, and this time the roar was full of fury.They all turned to look at it again, then watched in horror as with one leafy hand it tore a flaming chunk of vegetative mass out of its own torso and flung it, still burning, in their direction.The party scattered, except for fireboy, whom the chunk of flaming plant-mass hit head-on. But instead of hurting him, it broke apart on him, falling apart to either side, burning up even more quickly and smoking away into charred ashes, leaving him there, holding out his hands in the same pose he had used to set his friends' weapons alight.The plant monster roared yet again. There were still a few flames burning on its body here and there, including on the hand with which it had ripped a section out of its own chest, but it had largely succeeded in removing the part of it that had been on fire from itself. In the cavity that had been left in its chest, new shoots and vines now grew quickly to fill the gap, regenerating its body.“Poodoo!” ponytail yelled vulgarly. “It can heal itself!”“Yes, but the fire still hurts it!” the old man yelled back. “We might be able to burn it up faster than it can heal! Attack! Attack! Use your flame-assisted weapons!”“Death and glory!” ponytail shouted, and ran at the monster with his twin flaming blades held out.“For Imfis!” shouted engineer-girl as she followed him with her fiery whip.“Manolia!” cried goldengirl.The old man and the Shadowfinger ran with them too, though without feeling the need to shout battlecries, leaving only fireboy remaining standing where he was, holding his hands out.Huld watched all of this happening like a curious observer. He was a good distance from the plant in this corner of the platform he had ended up in, and he was strangely fascinated by the foreigners and their unorthodox improvised fighting techniques. He saw no reason to join in yet, if at all. This monster, fearsome as it was, was apparently a guardian of the Primeval Jewel that belonged to his people. Nothing that had happened on their journey through the Shrine had convinced him that it was a good idea to be taking the Emerald from its safe hiding place here, wherever it was. He hadn't even located it yet. It may have been his orders to help with this mission, which he was bound to obey, but he didn't have to rush to obey them, did he?What was more, he didn't have a weapon that could hold fire like the others' could. So he had no weapon that would be effective against the earth elemental.Or do I?“Huld!” fireboy called out to him, “Do...do you want some fire too?” His eyes were creased up with strain and his arms trembled where he held up his hands palm-out in a gesture which seemed to allow him to be able to keep the fire burning on his friends' weapons.“No thank you,” Huld said to him politely. “I am not quite so...keen on fire as you are.”“But don't you...don't you need a way to fight it too?” the boy gasped. It seemed to be a great effort for him to speak while he was sustaining so much fire at once.“Your friends seem to be dealing with it well enough on their own.”“Aaaarrrggghhhh!”Ponytail suddenly landed on the floor between them having been knocked backwards through the air by one of the plant monster's hands. He picked himself up and brushed himself down, wiping a bloody cut to his cheek with the back of his hand. He had lost one of his swords, but the one that he still held continued to burn with magical fire.“Why did it have to be earth first?” he grumbled. “I hate earth…”He ran back into the fray.The fireboy's friends were all slashing wildly at the plant monster, leaving trails of orange in the air where they drew their weapons across it. They were managing to hack off sections of the creature's body, big green collections of vines and leaves falling to the floor together, and set it on fire again in different places. But the vines and leaves seemed still to be growing back, in spite of the flames, and in between swiping at them with its gigantic leafy fists and roaring, the monster continued in its strategy of tearing off the flaming parts of itself and chucking them at the foreigners, or off the top of the shrine entirely, only for them to regrow.Huld sighed.“I suppose that you could try to lend me some of your fire,” he said to fireboy, “if you really want to.”He held out his wooden staff and tilted the tip of it down to the boy.“Fire,” spoke the boy, more weakly than before, and some more fire appeared and jumped from one of his hands to Huld's staff, setting the top of it alight. It burned orange and hot.Huld recoiled from it immediately, but managed to keep hold of it at arm's length. I hate fire, he thought.“Thank you,” he said, remembering his etiquette, and dipped his head slightly to fireboy.“No...no problem…” breathed fireboy, evidently struggling. “You better get in there…”Huld nodded, and ran towards the battle, holding the staff a good distance away from his body.When he ran past ponytail, the skypirate said “Baldy! So good of you to join us!”Filthy foreigner.Huld thought he should imitate the others, and he wanted to reassert where his allegiance lay and remind himself of his motivation for doing all this, so as he bent his knees and jumped high through the air, he shouted “For Farr!”It came off the tongue a bit awkwardly, but it made for a good enough battlecry, he supposed.He flew through the air and aimed an almighty thwack of his staff right at the creature's ‘head'. The staff connected pleasingly, and Huld held it in place a little longer, using its momentum and the creature's own body to keep it in contact for a moment after the initial impact.The monster's head caught fire.Huld kicked off the creature with both his feet and backflipped, landing on the ground and twirling his staff around himself in an orange-trailed flourish before letting it come to rest at his side again.“Nice-one, monk-man!” the engineer-girl called out to him. “That was fabulous!”Huld allowed himself a smile and a nod to her. He supposed that he was partial to praise, even from foreigners... Even from foreigner engineer-girls who looked and dressed a bit like boys…The plant monster roared. It was on fire again, but it tore at its own head and ripped it off, then threw it at Huld, who leapt again, over the top of it, somersaulted in the air, and came down upright.The head regrew quickly, reforming out of the plant mass of the creature's body, and the monster roared again with renewed vigour.That was unfortunate.But the foreigners seemed to have the advantage now. Whether because they were inspired by Huld's daring attack, or because they didn't want him to get all the ‘glory' as ponytail called it, they charged in again, hacking, slashing, swiping, whipping at the plant, chopping more of it off and setting more parts of it alight.Huld joined them, rushing in and swiping rapidly at its hands with his staff, deflecting them from bashing into him or the foreigners, trying to hold the monster up long enough to stop it from tearing off the flaming parts of itself before the fire could consume it completely and burn it up.If they could all attack quickly enough together, and coordinate their attacks, then maybe they could cut enough of it off and set enough of it on fire to prevent it from regrowing and destroy it completely.“It's working!” yelled ponytail. “Keep going! Keep fighting!”Almost all of the plant was on fire now and it didn't seem to be able to regenerate itself fast enough anymore. It appeared to be shrinking, even as it roared a noise of frustration and tore more flaming parts off itself to chuck at the foreigners, who scrambled to get out of the way and came back in to attack.They were doing it. They were subduing the Earth Elemental, the guardian of the Shrine to Eto and the Earth Emerald. Huld wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that, but at least they were winning.And then the fire on their weapons ran out.The flames leaping from the foreigner's swords and whip just fizzled out, leaving cold metal once again. Only Huld's staff continued to burn with fire, presumably because it was made of wood and the boy had set it on fire in the more traditional fashion.The monster reached down and grabbed his staff. Huld was too stunned with surprise to react in time. The monster snatched the staff away from him with a twitch of its arm, then snapped it in two, throwing the discarded halves of it over its shoulder, off the top of the Shrine.“Oh dear,” Huld said.“I'm...I'm sorry!” fireboy called back weakly from somewhere behind them. “I don't think I have any mana left! I used it all up! I'm exhausted!”“Well, poodoo,” said ponytail. “And just when we were starting to win as well…”The monster roared at them, having torn another massive chunk of flaming plant-mass off of itself and thrown it away, then regrown it. There were far less flames burning on it already. And it had begun to increase in size again.Its leafy fist flew through the air, aimed at Huld.He raised a defence to block.But this time, instead of punching him, the monster opened its green hand before it made impact with the monk, and instead reached out to grab him in a band of vines, which constricted around him immediately.Huld cried out in alarm and pushed against the vines, but with no fire to blight them they held fast, and constricted all the more tightly.He called out with pain as the tendrils forced themselves tighter around his chest. All of a sudden there was a rush of air as the monster swung him somewhere with its hand, and then he was completely surrounded by green and brown vines and shoots.Huld wriggled and writhed, tried to kick, punch, amidst the seething mass of plant. His vision was entirely obscured by leaves and vines and branches. Every which way he turned were only more leaves and vines and branches.What had happened? Had the plant monster taken him into itself? Into its own body?He tried to call out again but found he had no breath. Vines still encircled him, still clamped down on his chest, and they were beginning to squeeeeeze the air out of him, squeeze the very life out of him.He wriggled and writhed all the more frantically, all the more desperately, but to no avail. The effort only made the vines tighten around him even more. He was trapped.His energy began to wane. The corners of his vision started to blur. And then he lost the ability to move entirely, his vision staring to turn black and fade away.He was passing out, he realised. He was suffocating. He was going to die.Well, I wouldn't mind winning this battle if it meant staying alive, he thought dimly.The world went dark.Just before the darkness overtook the entirety of his vision, something green and bright flared in it.Huld opened his eyes again, which had been drooping shut, looking out with one last surge of desperate hope.A little way in front of him, also embedded in the mess of leaves and vines, was a green jewel, shining blighty with an ethereal glow.The emerald wants to be found, the old man's words echoed in Huld's mind. This is all a test, he realised.Could he get to it?With the last of his strength, Huld stretched his neck out amidst the tangle of vines and touched his mouth to the green-glowing emerald, giving everything he had, and kissed it.Fertile power surged through Huld, beginning in his lips and spreading to every part of him. At the same time became aware of the plant monster in a new way. All at once he could somehow feel all of its different vines and branches and leaves and tendrils. And not only that, but now he could feel the presence of the earth from which the Shrine was composed below him, underneath the plant's ‘feet'. He could feel the whole construct of the Shrine, all its different earthen floors and walls and corridors, its stone doors, and even, below all that, the soil of the earth of Farr itself. He did not know how to put it into words even in his own thoughts—but all of a sudden he could just feel them in the same way that he could feel his own body.And if he could feel them like his own body, he could move them like his own body, too.He concentrated, and willed for the plant to release him.Somewhere above him the plant monster roared again, a strained, peculiar noise. Huld hadn't known before how a plant could roar, but now with his new earth-sense he perceived that one of the many different kinds of plants of which the tangled elemental was composed was able to trap and release air, and that a group of them were releasing a rush of pressurised air in coordination from a collection of vines in its ‘throat' in order to make the roaring noise.The plant was resisting him, but Huld was exerting some effect on it.The monk shut his eyes, drawing on a lifetime of meditation and attention-training, and used his new earth-sense to ‘feel' for the vines and shoots that composed the monster's arms. He felt their presence ineffably, but he also saw the two arms in his mind's eye.He concentrated, and, as if it was his own, made one of the monster's arms rise to reach inside its own torso.Huld felt familiar tendrils encircling himself, but this time they constricted around him only to pluck him out of the seething mass in which he had become embedded. Air rushed over him again briefly as he willed the monster to pull him out of its body, and then opened his eyes with a jolt as he willed it to let him go and landed on his back on the ground with a smack.Stars burst behind his eyes and the Farrian sunshine blinded him for a moment, breaking his concentration, but then he was springing onto his feet again, reaching out with his earth-sense towards the plant, willing it to submit to him.Around him, some of the foreigners were still pestering it like irritating mosquitoes, and now Huld realised that it had taken others of them into itself.“Son of a submariner!” came a muffled cry from within the body of the plant, from a body concealed by foliage. “Heeeeeelp!” Engineer-girl.“Get us out of here!” came another. Fireboy.This was why the other foreigners weren't attacking it all-out anymore, but merely defending themselves from it and taking cheap shots—they didn't want to hurt their companions.“Master Huld,” goldengirl called to him from nearby. “You made it release you, somehow!” She saw much. Huld did not like that. “Can you make it release Ryn and lady Elrann, too?”Huld set his jaw. “I will try,” he said in earnest.Intuitively, he reached out his hands, much as he had seen fireboy and ponytail do to call their fire and wind, and felt with his new earth-sense to take control of the plant's arms again.He got them, but the plant resisted him, pushing back against his control. It was like the monster had a consciousness, a will of its own. Or maybe it was the will of the Jewel itself? Was that possible?Huld grunted. Exhaustion sapped his limbs already—he was new to this power, and after the first initial flush of awakening to it, it was hard work to use it.He gritted his teeth, a long hiss of effort issuing from between them, and forced the monster's two arms up and into itself, searching for the engineer-girl and fireboy, found them, and pulled them from within it. They came out with gasps of relief as Huld made the monster plonk them down on the floor. It must have been strangling them to death too.Huld dropped his arms after the two foreigners landed, releasing his mental hold on the monster. His triceps and forearms had filled with bright, flaring pain from the effort he had just expended.“How did you do that, baldy?” ponytail said next to him, his forehead scrunched up with incredulity.“Inside the creature…” Huld conceded, panting. “I touched… the Emerald…”The plant monster took a step towards them.“Well do you think you could use your new abilities to take that thing out?!” ponytail shouted.A plant-fist flew through the air towards Huld.He put his hands up again and willed for it to stop…...only to be smacked in the chest and sent tumbling back heels-over-head along the floor.He almost went over the edge of the platform, but put his hand out and grabbed the lip of it just in time, thudding into the earth wall below with the side of his body as he dangled.“Ouch,” said Huld. His arm strained almost beyond belief.He took a deep breath, got his other hand up onto the platform too, then grimaced as he wrenched himself back up onto it, in spite of himself a gasp of pain spilling from his lips.The battle had resumed. The foreigners danced forwards and backwards, throwing hopeless strikes and avoiding the plant monster's hands like their lives depended on it. Which, in fact, they did.Ponytail turned and saw Huld standing at the edge of the platform.“Baldy!” he called. “Look, if you've got earth-powers now, can you sort this thing out for us or not?!”“I am sorry,” Huld called back. He was apologising more than he would like to today, and to filthy foreigners of all people. “I am not strong enough. I think I may have ‘run out of mana', as the boy put it?”“That's right,” called goldengirl, jumping out of the way to avoid a grab from the monster, then running back to join him at the edge of the platform. “You only just got your powers,” she said when she reached him, her face flushed. “You would have had the surge when you first touched the jewel, but they are new to you, so your mana reserves won't be very large yet. You can only increase them through training and practice. Have you got anything left?”“No,” Huld said, keenly aware of the pain in his arms. Though maybe there was a small something left in there. “Or at least, not much,” he added.“Grandfather,” goldengirl said to the old man, “can you give him some of your mana?”“An excellent idea!” said the old man, his face lighting up. “I almost forgot! Though I must be careful not to entirely deplete my own reserves.”While the others kept the plant monster busy, the old man ran over to Huld and laid a hand on his shoulder. Normally Huld would have protested at this gross invasion of his personal space and breaking of etiquette, especially by a foreigner, but he was growing to accept some of their stranger ways.“Syphon,” said the old man, then “Cure.” Huld felt a lightness spread from his shoulder through the rest of his body, and the pain in his arms subsided.“Thank you,” he said to the old man, bowing.“Don't mention it.” The old man grinned through his white beard. “Though I'm out of mana myself now.”Huld wasted no time. He put his two hands forward, making gripping shapes with each, and concentrated on the plant monster.In the middle of pulling back for a strike at engineer-girl, the plant monster stopped in place, trembling against the force of Huld's earth-manipulation. He felt it resisting him, like a magnetic force physically pushing against his outstretched hands, but he held it in place. For now.“Now!” Huld yelled desperately. “Attack it now while I am still able to hold it!”“Come on, everyone!” the Manolian cried. “Now's our chance!”The foreigners rushed the monster again, though this time without any flame projection from fireboy. Being the nearest, engineer-girl got to it first, lashing at it with her whip, which shot out like a silver snake lunging towards its pray and lashed through some leaves. Then ponytail, Vish, fireboy, the Manolian, the old man, all arrived with their swords, jumping and cutting wildly at it, tearing sections of growth from it as Huld held it in place.The pain returned to Huld's arms, sharp as needles. He could feel the plant monster resisting his grip, pushing against him, intensifying the pain. He clamped his jaw tight.“We're doing it!” ponytail yelled as he slashed off another chunk of vegetation. “Just a bit longer! We've got it this time!”And then Huld lost control of the monster again.The pain in his arms had reached its highest pitch, and even though he still had his hands out and was concentrating hard on holding the monster still, it broke his grip all of a sudden and immediately flung out a massive arm, sending the surprised foreigners flying in all directions like it was swatting away a collection of irritating flies.As it stepped towards Huld, he found he didn't have the strength or quickness to move out of the way.Bright pain shone on his face as he spun through the air from the monster's blow.Huld found himself on his back on the platform again, blinking from the sting of the pain, looking up above him at the bright, hot, Farrian sun.The bright, hot Farrian sun, brilliant in the clear blue sky, visible because the glow-worms had eaten away the stone walls at the top of this Shrine.The bright, hot Farrian sun, brilliant in the clear blue sky, visible because the glow-worms had eaten away the stone walls at the top of this Shrine, which had fed the plant monster with light so that it grew from a tiny shoot in the ground to this roaring, tangled mass of regenerative vines and leaves that they were now struggling to defeat.Huld had an idea.He reached out with his earth-sense, feeling the soil and clay of which the shrine was made below him, under his back, on all sides of him, in the floor of this platform, right at its edges where the stone walls had been…“Earth! I summon you!” he found himself yelling, forcing his mind to focus on the material of the platform and intensifying his concentration on the words he spoke.At the same time he thrust both his hands upwards towards the sky, then rolled over onto his side, arms still outstretched, pushing himself up with his legs onto his knees, then, with a great force of his will, straining, standing, lifted his hands high above his head as they trembled and shook.As he did so, the earth around the perimeter of the platform rose up into the air, pushing up from lower down in the Shrine, becoming a wall around the top of it which rose as high as Huld, then higher than him, replacing the original stone walls of the chamber.Acting on instinct, with what felt like the very last of his earth-projection energy, or ‘mana', or whatever stupid term the foreigners used for it, Huld brought his two hands above his head slowly together.The earth he had called up to form walls around them bent inwards towards the middle of the platform, then continued extending to form a dome, making a large, shrinking hole in the air above them.As the hole closed up, the light coming from the sky diminished, progressively blocked out by the newly risen walls, eventually to form only a small circle through which a single beam of sunlight fell, spotlighted on the plant monster, until with the last clap of Huld's hands as he clasped them fully together the hole closed up completely and the light disappeared.Darkness had returned.In the dark, the plant monster roared, and now Huld heard fear in the roar.“Again!” Huld shouted as he sank to his knees from exhaustion. “It gets its energy from the sun! Attack again!”In the darkness, he only heard the frenzied footsteps of the others charging forward to attack, and their battlecries.“Death and glory!”“Manolia!”“For Cleasor!”“For the One!”“For Imfis!”The dull thwacking sound of blades hacking at vines and foliage.The sound of a plant monster roaring even more loudly again in...pain?Grunts of exertion, a shout of shock, a rush of air, the thump of a body and metal on earth as someone fell to the ground with their weapon.A hand pressed on his shoulder again. “Here you go, Huld,” said the old man. “This strategy had better work, as this is the very last of my mana.”Lightness filled Huld once more.“I thought that you said that you were out of ‘mana'?” Huld challenged the old man“A version of the truth,” said the old man. “I kept just the littlest bit in reserve for any emergency healing, or to use at the right moment. Such as now. Half the trick of fighting is knowing when to strike. I've just given a very little to Ryn too, now that that monster can't seem to regrow itself anymore.”A flare of light from fireboy's upheld hand confirmed his words, and lit a vision of the six foreigners crowded around the monster, hacking and whipping at it as it writhed and lashed out at them, apparently stripped of its regeneration power now the sun had been blocked out.Huld almost felt sorry for it.But not really. It had tried to eat him after all. And his orders were to destroy it and to take the Jewel.“Hold it, Huld, hold it!” fireboy shouted, no doubt having seen that the old man had replenished the monk's energy reserves and he was back on his feet.The plant monster was on fire again, the crackling light from its burning body now illuminating the re-walled chamber. Stripped of its regeneration ability, it could do nothing about this but flail around madly at the foreigners, who merely ducked and dived out of the way of its limbs, then jumped in again when it turned away from them to hack at it some more.Huld stretched out a hand, and for the third time that day held the monster in place.“For Farr!” he yelled.Weakened, the monster held fast, stuck in a pose with an arm pulled back to strike at fireboy.They had it.Safe from the strike, fireboy unleashed a final elemental attack at the monster, orange flaming from his hand and setting anything that wasn't already on fire alight. The rest of them pressed in, hacking whole chunks of flaming vine and shoot from it, some of them getting so near to the flames they were almost burned.Fixed in place, falling apart under the spell and swords of the foreigners, the monster let out one final, deafening roar that went deep and long, then began to peter out, growing quieter and quieter until it ended in a failing hiss, then ceased altogether.They had defeated the plant monster. All that was left of it now was a formless pile of burning mulch into which its body had disintegrated.Something shone bright and leaf-green at the centre of the mulch. Something small and oval, so bright that it gave the walls and the foreigners a green glow.The Earth Emerald.Without another thought, and before any of the foreigners could do so, Huld ran forward and reached into the mulch, not caring that some of it was still on fire, to grab the Jewel and pull it out.As soon as his hand wrapped around it, he felt power surge through him again, just as it had done when he had touched it with his lips inside the plant monster, only more so. Energy throbbed along his arms and legs, reinvigorating him. He felt solid, stable, secure. And all the more disliking of fire than ever.He hopped back a safe distance from the burning remnants of the plant monster.The Jewel was cool to the touch, despite the fact that it had recently been embedded in a pile of flaming plant mass, and shone bright green.He looked around at the foreigners, who stood panting, staring at him with wide eyes and faces lathered in sweat, and breathed a long sigh of relief.He had completed his mission.Now to return the Jewel to the Governor, who would keep it safe from these filthy prying foreigners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sagaofthejewels.substack.com

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Returning to Louisiana, Swamp Thing meets Anna, a mysterious writer with a book of short stories-tales into which the Earth Elemental is irresistibly drawn…one by one. Support us at:  https://www.patreon.com/PlanesTrainsandComicBooks Follow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/planestrainsandcomicbooks

As Swamp Thing confronts big-game hunter Nelson Strong, El Señor Blake prepares to enter a deadly game to determine the fate of the Earth Elemental. Support us at:  https://www.patreon.com/PlanesTrainsandComicBooks Follow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/planestrainsandcomicbooks

Scylla and Star Caller race to Hestor's aid! But will their valiant race be enough save Hestor from a malignant Medusa and an erratic Earth Elemental?Get in touch with us! Shoot an email to TheMadnessTable[at]gmail.com or shoot us a DM over on Discord, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook!Enjoying the show? Buy us a cup of ko-fi to show your support!Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition playthrough of Out of the Abyss adventure module, written by Wizards of the Coast.Dungeon Master: William JohnstonAll NPCs: William JohnstonArtomis Star Caller: Andrew WalkerHestor: Brendan ProalScylla: Sam ConklinAUDIO:Ice Cavern | Tabletop AudioLatin Electro #10 | DmyraCosa Peluda | DmyraEndgame | Tabletop AudioBlackberry's Hedge | Secret JaneNerbuldar | Ambient MixerAnd Darkness Grew Like a Tree | Doctor TurtleNight Sky | Jar of FliesKevin Macleod | Air PreludeKevin Macleod | Dreams Become RealDnd 5e, underdark, drow, wizard, cleric, warlock, Dungeons and Dragons, The Madness Table, D&D, gaming, actual play podcast, ttrpgFind us on social! https://linktr.ee/TheMadnessTable

A strangely changed Swamp Thing travels to New York City where he encounters a dead priest who walks the earth. But the Parliament of Trees-and others-are pursuing the Earth Elemental, each with their own agendas. Support us at:  https://www.patreon.com/PlanesTrainsandComicBooks Follow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/planestrainsandcomicbooks

Alec Holland and Abigail Arcane confront the murderous Swamp Thing in a struggle that will determine the Earth Elemental's fate. Support us at:  https://www.patreon.com/PlanesTrainsandComicBooks Follow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/planestrainsandcomicbooks

The entire Swamp Thing mythos is turned inside out when Dr. Alec Holland regains consciousness in a South American hospital, sweating and disoriented from a terrible nightmare in which he had shambled through swamps as the reigning Earth Elemental. Support us at:  https://www.patreon.com/PlanesTrainsandComicBooks Follow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/planestrainsandcomicbooks

An era ends as Swamp Thing, Lady Jane and John Constantine face Arcane in the epic conclusion to the Sunderland saga. But even if the Earth Elemental survives, his carefully constructed private world may be shattered forever. Support us at:  https://www.patreon.com/PlanesTrainsandComicBooks Follow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/planestrainsandcomicbooks

Rev. Gregory Possman began as a Physic Trance Channel in 1991. Gregory channels over forty light beings including Sananda, Archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, as well as: Master Teacher Spirit, Quan Yin, Mary, Five members of the Council of Shambhala, and others. He also channels the Pleiadians, Siriuns and Venusians. Rev. Possman performs workshops throughout the world and offers recorded, channeled private sessions by phone. Today Gregory will be live channeling Pan, the Earth Elemental and Archangel Michael. Tune in to hear what messages they have for humanity. Each month he offers a free channeled message is available at www.gregorypossman.com.Disclaimer - After the commercial break there is an echo on the hosts part of the recording. Gregory's voice and channeling is not effected and can be heard perfectly. The show is recorded LIVE and sometimes we occur technical problems that unfortunately cannot be resolved. Support the show Contact me at: postcardstotheuniverse@gmail.com Shout out and follow on IG - @postcardstotheuniverse https://linktr.ee/postcardstotheuniverse Thank you and keep listening for more great shows!

Earth Elemental; Smash, smash, smash, smash, smash, smash, smash; Exhausted party. The party continues their attempt to save the plaza. Unexpected casualties are sustained.  Beatdown City -- Darren Curtis; Action Epic Cinematic Victory -- ZakharValaha; City of Duisburg -- One Man Symphony,  CCBY4.0

Contact with an earth elemental and about making a deal for recognition. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lux-deorum/support

Today we consider the origins of the 4 "classical elements" of earth, wind, fire and water, and look at what earth reveals to us of God.

Zaan and Kasumi's meditating, along with the rest of the party's restful sleep was rudely interrupted by the wall nearest them erupting in an explosion of burning rock and stone. A pair of brawling elementals had burst through into the tunnel the tempests traveled through. The ensuing battle was swift and decisive. The party decided to aid the Earth Elemental, as it seemed to have no desire other than to destroy the pair of fire elementals. It turned out that the Earth Elemental was actually a Kobold druid, named Klemon, whose job it was to keep the tunnel safe from intrusive creatures and monsters. Upon realizing that he was a few months over his contract, he offered to lead the group out of the tunnel since it was on his way. Accepting the offer, the Tempests set off with their helpful guide, avoiding a deadly patch of brown moss, and getting to see a beautiful underground lake.. While also nearly blinding their new friend and guide with a daylight spell. Vanera then inspected a nearby corpse wearing a curious piece of armor. With a rush of chilling magic, most of the party came out unscathed but for Kasumi and Klemon who seem to have had their magic suppressed for three days.   If you'd like to join the community and get updates for when we go live on twitch, considering joining our discord! https://discord.gg/bWSgjAdMbp

I love connecting with star sister Gaia, and now it's truly an honor to share one of these channeled conversations with you in collaboration with spiraling with/in.  With spring in full bloom, Beltane celebrations, my 25th re-birthday, and the Taurus-Scorpio eclipse portal from April 30 to May 16, the energies are potently aligned for this transmission to come through now. And, simultaneously, this recording is timeless — perfectly resonant whenever, wherever, however you encounter these frequencies. Consciousness evolution, activating the planetary grid, anchoring light from with/in inner earth, alchemizing with the earthly elements, bridging cosmic-earth frequencies, channeling light language. I invite you to experience, contribute, and receive what's divinely here for and from you. episode transcription available hereabout me:Welcome divine one, I'm Pei-Ling. I align and activate divine light beings on an ascension path of consciousness evolution. My creative purpose is inspiring, illuminating, and igniting the beautiful truth of multidimensional divine oneness in service of the cosmic earth collective. It's a delight to be here with you, now.join me on YouTubereceive my weekly multidimensional newsletteran open invitation:If you're inspired to be part of this evolutionary journey of conscious co-creation as an aligned sponsor or collaborator, send me a message at hello@peilinglee.net to explore the alignment of mutually joyful expansion.a loving reminder of self-sovereignty and vibrational autonomy:All content offered to you through me, Pei-Ling Lee, on any channel or website is for informational and educational purposes only. I share general information, not personalized recommendations. By being here, you consciously realize that you are a multidimensionally whole divine being — fully responsible for yourself and all of your choices, actions, experiences, and outcomes. And you acknowledge that the content I share is not intended to be considered medical, mental health, legal, financial, or religious advice. Everything is invitational, offered forth for you to discern what's true, aligned, and resonant with you now.Love, light, and blessings!

This week the boys dive into yet another Earth Elemental! The Galeb Duhr, this weird boy has a lot of corelating artwork so make sure you check out the insta this week! Reading List https://www.encounterthis.ca/blog Socials Patreon Twitter Instagram Facebook Sponsor Strange Fellows Brewing, a Vancouver based brewery whose Blackmail Stout might be single handily responsible for the formation of our show

Monster: The Earth Elemental Statement by Dask Belak Dask Belak is like many of your rogues; edgey and wants to be alone. But while on a mission to steal an artifact from an ancient wizard a trap is triggered and his fate is in the hands of his party as an Earth Elemental is summoned to eradicate the intruders! Starring: Kez'Var Gildair - Shawn McCarter Writer / Director / Editor: Shawn Mccarter This is the third episode in my passion project - Monsters of Fantasy. This podcast will explore the creepy and dark side of Dungeons and Dragons. I've been playing and DMing tabletop games for the past 5 years and have always liked to hype up the horror parts of my campaigns. So I'll be picking Monsters from the Monster Manual, and the DnD universe, to write stories about their abilities and show why they deserve the title "Monster". Join Kez'Var as the first Bard to record an entire catalog of Monsters! But beware, while Fairies, Dragons, and Ghost do exist in this world. So does the fear that they can produce! -------------------------------------- Content Warnings - Graphic Language Gore Abandonment Buried Alive: Taphephobia -------------------------------------- For more information or to talk with the community, visit: FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Monsters-of-Fantasy-113409190993721 TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@monstersoffantasy TWITTER: https://twitter.com/MonstersOf_ YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwAiAId1FBBMvHgwqfgq7Dg EMAIL: themonstersoffantasy@gmail.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/monstersoffantasy --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/monstersoffantasy/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/monstersoffantasy/support

On Tonight's Episode, we shall feast with our Earth Elemental's. Opening with the Prayer of the Gnomes by Eliphas Levi we take a journey into ourselves to seek and understand our personal elemental of the Earth. Was this spirit of the classical Gnome variety or something entirely different. Be sure to let me know in the comments, i would love to hear about your journey's.  Music Credit's: Gaia by Nova Noma https://soundcloud.com/nova-noma Music provided by www.plugnplaymusic.net Slow Days by KCFM https://soundcloud.com/kcfm2001 Music provided by www.plugnplaymusic.net --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/feast-of-torches/support

Join us as our party of would-be thieves and thugs try to find a hidden treasure left there by Zix's mother in the past. Hopefully this Earth Elemental won't be the rockslide that rolls over our party. Will Anak's shoulder ever be the same after last session? Who knows? Not us. That's for sure. Twitter: https://twitter.com/LnLpodcasts Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lnlpodcasts/ Email: LnLpodcasts@gmail.com If you would want to submit an NPC name or Magic Item for the campaign then tweet about the show using the #LnLPodcast hashtag! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lnlpodcasts/message

After defeating the Earth Elemental, Glugtar is convinced that there is nothing else major in this temple and leads the group into the lower level to try and find the next piece of the Staff of Soliel.

The Nefarious Night Monkey Strikes Again! This week on the podcast Brian and Johnny start with some ramble about concerts and fun stuff like that, then swing on into their spoiler heavy review of Spider-Man: Far From Home. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) Summary In Ixtenco, Mexico, Nick Fury and Maria Hill investigate an unnatural storm and encounter the Earth Elemental. A super-powered man, Quentin Beck, arrives to fight the creature. In New York City, the Midtown School of Science and Technology restarts its academic year to accommodate the students who were among those resurrected in “the Blip” eight months prior. The school organizes a two-week summer field trip to Europe, where Peter Parker, while still distraught over Tony Stark’s death,[N 1] plans to confess his growing feelings for classmate MJ and avoid heroics. At a fundraiser for the homeless coordinated by his Aunt May, Parker is forewarned by Happy Hogan that he will be contacted by Fury, but Parker chooses to ignore the call. Parker leaves after being overwhelmed by questions about Stark. Cast & Crew Directed by Jon Watts Produced by Kevin Feige Amy Pascal Written by Chris McKenna Erik Sommers Based on Spider-Man by Stan Lee Steve...

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man (Tom Holland) from Queens is now in Venice! This time Spidey meets up with Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) to fight Earth Elemental super beings. If you feel your "Peter Tingle" tingling, its cause this is a spoiler heavy show. Tune in as the Nerd In Me crew talk about Spidey's next adventure following the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame. Facebook.com/NerdInMePodcast Instagram.com/NerdInMe Twitter.com/nerdinmepodcast YouTube: NerdInMePodcast Rate and Review on iTunes email at nerdinmepodcast@gmail.com Intro music by the talented Jellyfish Audio. : Facebook.com/JellyFishAudio --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/nerdinme/support

The team, still missing a few of their company, tracks back to a tunnel where they found some inert Earth Elemental hearts in an attempt to stock up. Once inside, they discover something a little more alive...and a little more deadly. Cast: Kathryn as Erallur, Simon as Lor'athel, Adam as Thelios with Michael as the Dungeon Master.

 An Earth Elemental vs NASA