Sol's Shine and the Kingdom of Metal

Chapter 1 Departure

It had been three months since the war between the Kingdom of Fire and the Kingdom of Terra had ended. Despite a few grudges being held between the humans and dwarfs, most people felt it was necessary to set aside the differences they had to face the real enemy; the god Sinnel, the remaining star demons, and anyone who was ever a part of their cult. In a seaside town within the Kingdom of Fire, Solas Lumer frantically tried getting everything he had together. He put on his shirt, tied his shoes, and grabbed his new stainless steel sword that was given to him in exchange for the Shining Giant. "Sol! We're getting ready to depart, hurry up!" His sister called from downstairs. "I know! I'll be there!" Sol said, knowing he had almost overslept and tried everything he could to get going and out the door.

When he was finally ready, Sol ran as fast he could down the steps, even going as far as to jump a few of them to get down to the bottom as fast as he could. He opened the door to the outside and left the current place they stayed at for the night. He saw his sister walking down to the third dock, taking her precious time. Aside from being more woken up from the sea's cold breeze, the bright sun stung his eyes a bit. After adjusting to the environment and rubbing his eyes, he was ready to go again. Upon catching up to his sister, Sol noticed that there were actually two large ships at the end of the third dock they were going to. "Which ship is ours?" Sol asked Crystal. "The one on the right." She answered without having to face and turn to him. She was just as excited as he was about going to the Kingdom of Metal and that wasn't anything she could hide from Sol no matter how much she tried, the look on her face always gave it away with the slight grin she showed.

"The one on the left is the one Ella and Vincent are going to take." Crystal added. This sparked Sol's curiosity. He wasn't aware that either Ella or Vincent wanted to go anywhere anytime soon but sure enough he was able to see them both waiting for them as they approached the end of the dock. Ella waved both of her hands in the air to try and get both of their attention while Vincent stood with his arms crossed, trying to be stoic when in reality, Sol could just tell he was cold from the sea's breeze. "Hey! Over here!" Ella shouted. "How's it going?!" Sol left his sister's side to try and get to Ella and Vincent faster.

"What brings you guys down here? Who's running that flower shop in Barrow?" Sol asked. "We're closed until we get back." Vincent answered Sol's second question. "We're going to make a brief trip to the Kingdom of Water. There's something that I figured out about the magic I've learned and I want to give it a shot at something we left behind there." Ella said enthusiastically. "If I didn't know any better, I would just say that you're just excited to see your mom again." Sol said to her. "That's exactly what this is about." Crystal said as she managed to catch up to hear their conversation. "Why don't you tell Sol what you've told me. I believe it's honestly a huge breakthrough." Crystal said to her as Ella nodded in agreement.

"So you know how I can manipulate the qualities of plants with my magic; make them grow rapidly, change a few attributes as in their size, smell, or taste? I looked further into it and thought I could use that same magic on something else like insects. At the end of the day, they're all living lifeforms, just with a few different qualities themselves." Ella said. "You could say that it isn't as accurate to call it 'plant magic' anymore but rather 'life magic' instead. The amount of cockroach heads she tried to grow back was a little disgusting but I'm impressed with her progress so far." Vincent patted Ella on the back.

Sol was a little stunned to hear about this. "That's amazing Ella! I never knew you could do something like that!" "Yeah, well... I guess I'm a little bit of a prodigy. No big deal really." Ella bragged, taking in all the praise she could hear. "Are you going to use this magic on your mother? You know what happened between Yvonne and Cinder don't you?" Crystal tried to make sure that what Ella and Vincent were doing was the right thing before they got carried away. Ella's grin returned to a straight face. "Maybe one day but no... it's actually something else. I don't want to use this magic on her unless I perfect it. I don't want anything to go wrong." Ella said to them. "Then what other reason would there be for going to the Kingdom of Water?" Sol asked.