Our blades clash against each other, emitting a metallic 'shling!'
I strain my hand a little, flexing it to prompt mana into my arm. With a feeling like something is tearing out of my hand, I slash my left hand across my body, blowing myself backwards with a gust of wind, just barely dodging the follow up slash from my Mother's sword
I fly backwards, smashing into the back of the arena, nocking the wind out of me as I fall down down to the dirt floor, dropping my implement
Oops, I put a little too much juice with that one
Dazed, I think back, when was the last time I got winded like this? High school seven minute mile? Oh wait, three years ago when I started training with Mother. We were practicing sword only, I managed to get a cheap shot, threw some dirt in her eyes and drove my blade into her side.
It was a very strange feeling as the blade pierced her skin. My stomach started to churn, spreading and enveloping myself in the sweet sense of accomplishment, and a sour mix of regret and fear as I heard a gasp of pain escape her mouth. Even in my last life, I had not gotten anywhere close to this kind of action.
Thankfully, the feeling was quickly replaced with another. Her off hand had immediately shot out and grabbed the scruff of my smock, flinging me away. I quickly learned that the golden net that protected us from serious harm was also solid.
Just like then, I lay here, gasping for air.
But then, I start to smell the scent of smoke
I groggily look around, searching for an opponent
I can spy some kind of movement in the distance behind the bleachers
No, that can't be it
I finally start to focus on the outline of Mother. Her Fist raised high, a ball of curling flames around it. I could almost feel the subtle hum of sparking energy as the flame grows to about the size of a soft ball. Like a pro-pitcher, she reels back raising her forward leg, before smoothly catapulting the crackling ball towards me
After feeling and grasping the leather grip of my grey blade tightly, I flick out my wrist with the other hand, running it along the blade, coating it in my fluid mana, solidifying it into a cool sheet of ice. I manage to slash through the hurdling ball before it is able to make contact with me.
I repeat the motion I made three years ago, it has sort of become my signature move. Feeling the now slightly glowing gem in the butt of the blade draw out force from inside me, sucking it out of my pores. I make a slashing motion, leaving behind a cool mist. Each spec of moisture grouping together, rotating faster and faster, spiraling into a volley of a dozen icy drills.
Most of the drills miss her completely, a few are able to get close, but they just get swatted away by a flame covered hand, creating a thick icy mist, obscuring herself from my vision
Then, before I realize it, her silvery sword is poised at me, pointing at my neck.
I had lost, again
Creating a slight whooshing sound, she twirls the blade around before sliding it into its sheath
"you've really grown! I practically clobbered you at every chance a few years ago" my Mother says with a wide smile, extending her arm to help me up. Hastily, I Grab it
She Yanks me up from the ground into a hug. Reluctantly, I comply with my Moms wish
"You've done well Jace" Mother says in a small voice, stroking my hair. She pushes me to arm length "You ready for some lunch? I know I am"
"Well actually, I was planning on doing something"
"Oh… So, pray tell?"
"I was uh… planning on looking around town"
"Want me to join you" a little sad smile widening her face
"I would like to go by myself, sorry Mom"
"Well that's alright, make sure to comeback when night begins to fall"
I begin to creep away from her "Alright mom" waving back at her
"Be safe!" She calls out to me, before turning around to go home, her head hanging lower than it normally would.
————————————————————————————————————————
I lay scrunched on the cool golden grass under the twisted pink willow, holding my legs close to my chest "I shouldn't of lied to Mom, though I'm not doing anything troublesome"
I groan a little as I stretch out
"Alright, let's try it again" I say out load to myself, grabbing the the worn tome I had brought with me, already opened to a page to a familiar spell
I had decided to practice mostly without my short sword, I had the thought that it would make my practice better, to do it without it helping to draw out my mana
propping open the book against my self, extending my other hand, aiming it at the target I had made out of old cloth and grass in the distance
I make a tight fist with my extended hand as I begin to recite the chant on the page
"Whistling arrows of cutting ice, frost lances, propelled by cutting winds…"
Being a rather advanced spell, combining water and wind mana in the same incantation, it is draining a rather large amount of mana from myself. Though as I practice this spell, I can feel it become easier and easier, stretching my growing muscle. I passed out the first time I tried it form exhaustion
I can feel a slight tearing feeling from my rolled up sleeve as a brief wind begins to cut at my arm. I had learned the hard way to roll it up, this first time I tried this, I severely massacred one of my favorite smocks.
I could see six lines of frost form then raise from around my numbing arm, crystallizing into thick stilettos of ice
"Aim true at the call to arms: Frost Volley!"
At my shout, I create a finger gun with my hand, extending my thumb up and my pointer finger extending towards the target, the Icy arrows rotating faster around my arm. Though I do not think it's intentional, it seems to help with certain projectile spells for me, the book said it would be helpful to imagine drawing back a bow, then releasing it to release magic, so I jokingly made a finger gun, but it works better than I thought it would.
Once I made sure I was on target, I extended my middle finger, releasing a pair of arrows. They go flying with a long eerie whistle
'Cr-thwa-Cr-thwack!'
Consecutive sounds of the projectiles slamming into the dummies chest
"Fuck Ya!" I yell, jumping up and down, fist pumping the air, trying to make sure to not stab myself with the remaining four ice arrows. A sense of relief washing over me
Though, in my excitement, I unintentionally ball my fist, causing the remaining arrows to begin spinning faster and faster, throwing me off balance, almost falling into the little pond under the tree
"Hay! Watcha doing?" A young voice calls from behind me
Startled I release my fist
The ice begins to rotate even faster and faster, humming slightly with mana
"Shit!"
I'm barely able to aim my arm in the direction of the hills before the four remaining arrows launch off my arm, pushed by a cutting gale, spiraling out in to the distance, impacting at the foot of the target, nocking me back onto my butt
'thwoom!'
The force throws dirt and grass into the air, creating an indent in the ground
I angrily whirl around on my heels to see the person who interrupted me
There, peering from the gnarled roots of the tree is a person
He is a boy that looks around my age. The first thing I notice is his eyes peeking out from under his shaggy, sandy-chestnut brown hair and slightly pointed ears, not enough to look like Ms. Rhea's elven ears, so he must be a half-elf. His eyes are an impeccable emerald green, they are full of an annoying amount, almost irritating amount, of child like wonder and mischief, they might as well be glowing with anticipation. His jaw is so wide open in awe, that it is practically touching the top of his worn overalls
"whoa" A very large smile envelops his face, the corners of his mouth reaching up to his eyes "That was so cool! How'd you do that spell?!" he says, beginning to crawl over to where I am sitting
He gets uncomfortably close to my face "Hi! I'm Rider, wanna be friends?" Extending his hand out
"Uh… Oi! Don't just sneak up on people like that! I could have hurt someone!"
Rider's smile quickly fades as I say this. He backs up and hastily gets up onto his feet. He places his right hand on his heart, and gets down on one knee, head hung low. I have seen Mother do something similar when she accidentally tripped over a cabbage cart
"I deeply apologize for my actions"
"I'm sorry too, you just surprised me, I thought I was here alone. Were you following me or something? How'd you find this?"
Rider gets up from his legs, dusting the dirt from his pant sleeves, "my daddy went out fishing and mommy didn't want to get out of bed, so she sent me to go get some vegetables. On my way I saw you and lady Cassandra fighting, so I decided to follow you and here I am" he starts beeping at me again "So are you a mage or something?!"
He's practically on the edge of his seat waiting for an answer
"No, I've just been doing some learning by myself"
"That's sad, so you don't you have any friends?"
Wow, he really sugar coated it didn't he
"Uh…"
He then puffs out his chest
"I, the great hero, Rider Stonewall, protector of the people, Request the aid of the great magician before me" He trots back towards me and puts an arm around my shoulder "Think of the adventures we'll have"
I brush off his hand "I think I'm good. I'm going home"
"If that is what you wish, but I shall not fail at my mission, I will have you join my party"
Please don't
He turns around, running down the hill, arms outstretched, heading back towards Haven
For days, Rider would appear from nowhere, spewing his chivalry nonsense, trying to recruit me for "his cause". Back at the tree, randomly in the market, he even came to my house a few days ago.
I had finally had enough, I screamed at him to never come back here. There was this feeling of anger and fear that built in me when I saw him standing at my door, so I just let it all out.
He just ran away afterwards. Mother gave a rather harsh scolding, I know I just screamed at a kid, this felt a little harsher than I thought
I saw him a few times afterwards back in the markets, he would just look away when our eyes met
————————————————————————————————————————
Mother had sent me out shopping for some fruits
The market is a very interesting place
It's a claustrophobic maze of stalls and cloth tents, sellers calling for your attention. Sometimes I can not even hear myself think
Off in the shadows, I can see the flash of pointed ears dash through the sides of stalls
Tired from this morning's training (Another loss for the board), I was rather bored, so I proceeded to investigate a little. I have time to do the shopping later
When the stall keeper was looking away, I dashed into the darkness of the tents
As I creeped through, I could hear the chatter of workers on break
"So how's the wife and kids huh?"
"I've heard that Lady Reinhart's brat went missing a few days ago"
"Is that a new kind of cheese? I haven't had it before, it tastes weird"
"I was able to resell this crappy dagger for like, double I paid for it"
"I hear there's still fighting in Arianalia"
"Oh really?"
Finally I see him hiding behind a fruit stand, what a coincidence
Now that I could see them clearer, I can see it's Rider
He is creeping up behind the stand wearing this, very stupid looking knight costume, very comically actually, with that sort of dramatic flare that makes it so I can not tell if it is serious or not. If he had done this before, I would be surprised if he has not been caught yet
After studying the shop keeper for a bit, he darts out and snatches a bowl full of apples, shoving them into a fraying leather bag when the shop keeper is looking away. But as he starts to dart away, he nocks into and trips over some pans from the next shop over, creating a large 'crash!'
Bewildered, the shop keeper spins around to see the thief
"Oi! what in the hells are you doing you lil brat! Come back here!" the shopkeeper starting to run towards Rider and his score
With his small stature, Rider is able to dart between people and obstacles, sliding and mantling over boxes.
He'll be fine
Though the shop keeper has his size and irritation fueling him, barreling through people and things, regularly accelerating, getting closer and closer
Rider's so much younger, he should have the stamina to out pace him
I try to keep up while staying in the background, but Rider is running faster than I thought possible
They chase bursts out of the line of tents into the open
Rider continues his agile jaunt, while the shopkeeper keeps shoving people to the side just to get back a few apples
Surely he is overreacting
The shopkeeper is getting awfully close to Rider, he has to have got some kind tricks up his sleave, right?
Sigh
I grab a scarf and hurriedly wrap it around my face to obscure it. I start pushing myself more than I have ever done before to be able to catch up to rider and his mischief
I manage to run slightly Infront of him, I can see that he is starting to wheeze a little bit. He sees me, a confused look in his face.
"Go to the alley behind the church, that tower in the distance, but take your time!" I manage to yell at him. I'm even getting to my limit, how is he so fast?
A wild grin enters his face as he sees he has gained an accomplice. He starts to peal off from me as I beeline for the church
As I make it to the dark, dusty alley, I dash to the other end in order to stand in waiting for my ally.
After a little bit of catching my breath, I can hear the sounds of stomping feet and flustered yelling. I can see rider round the corner into the alley
I crouch to the ground and place my hand on the ground
"Snow upon the ground, crystallin lattice, thor-"
No, that would be a bad idea, so I'll omit that part to get the other version
I could see the shopkeepers eyes widen slightly at my chanting, Rider's smile grow even larger
"cool, slow and sliding: Tundra!"
I finish chanting once Rider had gotten to my side. Lines of frost erupted from my hand, creating a thin sheet of ice across the alley, climbing the sides of the wall slightly
"Who, Whoooaah!"
The Shopkeeper yells, slipping on the ice and falling on his back
"Sweet! Let's go"
I get up and join him in my accomplice's escape
After a little bit of running, we make it into the outer part of town, a place I have not been before
we start to slow down, until we stop, panting
"Another mission successful, wouldn't you say? Partner" he says to me, nudging me with his elbow
I take off my "mask" It had gotten rather hot and sweaty running in it
"Oh, it's you Jason" A down and confused look taking over
I reach over towards his satchel full of apples, "What do we do with these? Eat them?"
He smacks my hand out of the way
'Bap'
"No, just wait and see. C'mon"
We walk out towards the wall, and there is a hole in it, worn with vines growing through it, stitching it together. Rider walked towards them, brushing them to the side and slipping through the hole
Reluctantly, I follow him
It leads to what looks like a caved in storage room in the wall, there's another hole in the ceiling, letting the setting sun light pierce through. But there, huddled around a sputtering campfire, is a women, and three kids huddled together, all shivering in tattered cloths. An unnatural, Eerie feeling emanating from group of four.
A little voice in the back of head screaming at me to run away
"I brought some apples this time, I hope you will like it"
The women reaches out towards the bag "Thank you... again". They don't look good
"Here, let me help" I walk towards the campfire, kneeling down towards it, frantically snapping as I do
I had practiced "Produce Flame" without it's incantation many times, to make sure I can recall the feeling of my buzzing finger tips, the warmth flowing through my fingers as I bring my mana to my finger tips. The snapping is not very helpful for casting it, it just made things.. Fun...
'snap, fwoosh'
"Finally" I place my hand near the base of the cone of sticks, flicking the small flame into it. It takes some time, but the fire starts to eat away at the damp sticks again
"Thank you" The boy in the middle gingerly says to me, looking away. He has Jet black hair and dark, deep blue eyes
After nodding to him, I walk back towards Rider, who is talking to the women "I'll come back with some meat tomorrow for you"
"No dear, how did you get these? And you roped another into this?"
"The uh.. Shop keeper gave them to me, I said they were for a good cause, and he" pointing over towards me "was just in the neighborhood"
The women gives him a disapproving look. It was fleeting, but it looks like there also was a brief flicker of fear. But what do I know?
"Go home you two, your parents must be getting worried, thank you for the food Rider"
"Don't mention it Ms. Eve"
And with that. Rider motions me towards the hole, and we leave together
We start to walk home in silence
It is rather unnerving
"It's Jace"
"Huh?"
"It's Jace"
"Oh, cool" I can see a weary smile slip onto his face "see you tomorrow?"
"Ya, sure"
"Sweet. This is my stop, good night Jace"
"Night Rider"
The next morning, Rider came to my door while I was still asleep, so Mother answered, prodding to find out why I hadn't gotten the fruit yesterday. But I guess she heard about the ruckus in the market, so after piecing things together, she gave us a rather mean scolding