A followup to "An Unlikely Duo"
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/31660992/

[WARNING: THIS IS SOME LONG ASS TEXT]

This piece shows them many years later being Illeth (Ven's adopted brother) and Zaine, Ven's childhood friend sitting on the side of a lake shore (In future things like this, I will be going more in depth with Illeth to develop him more. Just rn I'm drawing blanks with him.

As the years passed, both Ven and Zaine grew up together in the iafan Plains and were set on forging their own lives. The two grew into young men, still hanging on to each other and were nothing but the best of friends. It was, of course, beginning to bud into something else as both young men were realizing their feelings towards each other went deeper than a friendship. Perhaps it was by fate that it was not realized soon enough, as Zaine was too shy to express these feelings for fear of putting a barrier between him and Ven, and Ven being really bad at expressing his feelings at all. Those feelings continued to be left unrealized for many years during Ven's disappearance and his subsequent reunion with Zaine many years later.

Zaine had studied under some of the great elemental sages in Rodahnn to hone his skills as an elemental mage when he was 12 (as he wanted to start early), his main element being nature because of his lifelong love to study different kind of plants that grew in the plains. This love of flora took on a more practical usage in his years as an apprentice under the sages' wings, turning him into a pretty decent Naturalist.

Zaine however, did not see being a mage as a future occupation. He was destined to become a merchant like his father and mother was, and carry on their shop when they retired. Another factor leading into this was that his father had unfortunately been crippled in a bad fall when he was 15, leaving him unable to walk without a cane, forcing him to having to semi retire from running the store they owned. And thus Zaine had to take on the task of running the shop, leaving him to eventually leave his magic studies completely. Disappointed at first, he had to accept the fact that life will throw these sort of things, and he was running the shop now, taking advice from his father as he did. Ven and him would frequently chatter in the shops, often talking about their lives and the weather, with Ven offering at times to help him out whenever he needed it.

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Ven on the other hand, sought to hone his skills to become a fighter like his father before him, in hopes to prove his worth not only to Nagao, but to the high clan members. This was, pretty difficult with doing so. The higher ups did not see him as worthy, due to his lack of wings, which made him in their eyes a mere peasant. Ven simply did not care for how how they saw him, he still strived in his training to do better, to prove them wrong. This led to much internalized disappointment and anger in his heart as he kept trying and they still saw him as such. This anger was left unresolved, and it was building to a point where it was affecting his relationship with family at times as well. Him and his adopted brother Illeth, were still very close, but distance between both brothers was beginning to grow as They butted heads on how Ven was reacting to what others thought of him. As much as he wished to sympathize with Ven, he agreed with Nagao that Ven was going too far to try and proving himself. All he could really do though is to try to talk to both Ven and Nagao when their mother could reach to them (before her illness)

His relationship with his father Nagao, while it wasn't bad, was showing signs of strain, the two were at odds with each other when it came to Ven trying way too hard to prove himself, his father fearing at times that he was pushing himself too hard. He wanted Ven to slow down and realize that this shouldn't be the only way. To which Venias would disagree and disregard his words and keep going. While Nagao loved his son truly, the words of his clan highers got to him over time. They shamed him for having kept a child that was born without wings and that he would never truly be a man like any of them. It wore on Nagao as much as it did Venias, leaving only disappointment and sadness on his mind.

Things became even more strained when Myran fell ill. She became too exhausted fighting off the illness over time from when she first got it and had to rely on both her husband and her son to help her recover. For years prior to falling ill, she would help in resolving any conflict that both had, internal and external, but now that she could barely do much with how weak she had gotten, they both became more up in arms towards each other in arguments, Nagao and Venias. Only after the last fight they had, Did Nagao and Ven say things to each other that they didn't mean that they would later regret, Nagao going on about how he was "barely an Oth, who would always be a nothing" and Ven wishing that Nagao wasn't his father.

This leads to Venias running off and getting the idea to try to pick a fight with any humans nearby. A mistake that he should have never made but did so anyways, not only did he come across a band of slavers in their camp, but decided to take them on in a fight, only to be outmatched and captured by them eventually, dragging away a bloodied, unconscious Ven to become a servant to human royals.

In the weeks since, Zaine and Illeth both began to realize that somethimg was indeed, very wrong. Ven hadn't been showing up at all, not even to the shop or the lake where the three would hang out. It was only until then when they asked Nagao about it, that Nagao had revealed some grim news: upon looking for Ven, he had stumbled upon the slavers camping ground, the only thing there was Ven's dagger, letting his father believe that he was taken. To which both the two were distraught, realizing that Ven pulled a stupid ass stunt and could very well be dead because of it.

It leads to both Zaine and Illeth, at the lake where all three once hung out, to now discuss what they should do. The one idea they dreaded was setting out to look for him. At first both were against it, but wanting to try and bring back Ven alive, they needed to.

Thus, they set out, Zaine asking the help of his uncle with the shop while he was gone, and packing some weaponry that had been collecting dust in the very back of the shop.

As they both left Rodahnn, they both had no idea that this simple mission of saving their friend would basically lead to a huge ass saga for all of them. That saga being stopping a huge war from happening, stopping three false prophets from destroying Annwn, and ending up on a different world. (Sshhhh)


Sorry for the lackluster ending on this written portion, my hand is cramping and my phone wants to die on me)

Venias, Zaine, and Illeth are mine