On a road leading out of Bel Vard, the sound of a flute could be heard. The sound was fleeting and swift, then slow and morose. The notes danced across the path and bounced off the trees. The sounds turned merry and cheerful when the man playing the flute, with his audience of sheep, saw a group of children running down the road.

A band of seven boys and girls were racing along the dirt track wide enough for a horse-drawn cart. Sheep that were close to the fence line ducked away in fright as the boys in front were yelling at each other. A boy and a girl seemed to be competing in the middle and the last two girls were bringing up the rear, yelling just as much as the boys.

As they got closer to the man sitting on a rock playing the flute, their screaming was a bit more intelligible.

“Don’t push! That’s cheating!”

“Stop running in front of me then!”

The two in front were arguing.

“Hahaha!” The third was just laughing. Whether at the expense of the other two, or because he was just having fun, the shepherd didn’t know.

Next came the boy and the girl who were running side by side. They were silent as the girl seemed to be trying her hardest to keep up, while the boy was keeping pace just a step ahead. The boy was grinning from ear to ear.

“Why do we have to run?! We’re always running!”

“Why... is everything... a competition?!” The last two girls yelled in exasperation.

They careened past the man watching over his flock of sheep. The sound of his flute was failing as he chuckled to himself. He shook his head and continued to serenade his audience.

----------------------------------------

Water splashed as the children jumped in the river. There was a shallow enough bend in the river that flowed gently, allowing for people to enjoy a cool dip on a warm day. Which was exactly what these children had in mind when they raced to these calm waters.

They rushed to throw off their clothes, stripping down to their small clothes and used one of the boulders strewn about the clearing to leap in. More children jumped in, creating more splashes. Laughs and giggles filled the air.

Lucas surfaced and gasped in some air. He whipped his head around and wiped water from his eyes. His friends were swimming over to a slightly deeper part of the river, treading water in some areas, but it was never so deep that they couldn’t find their footing a couple meters further.

He tore his eyes away from the game of tag they were starting and watched as Meira leapt from the boulder like the boys had. Lucas grinned as she sailed forward and plunged into the calm waters. Her own grin wasn’t difficult to see.

Her two friends were a lot more hesitant though. They ignored the boulder and stepped into a shallow part, dipping their toes in before dancing back and forth. They always seemed to be afraid of copying the boys. Unlike Meira. She always tried to compete with Lucas and the rest of the boys.

“Come on you two!” Meira called out to the other two. “The water won’t get any warmer if you wait!”

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll get there!” Elena shouted back.

Lucas chuckled, which caught Meira’s attention. They shared a good-natured laugh. “You might have to go and drag them in.” He observed.

“...yeah, you might be right.” She agreed, eyeing her friends with a smirk. “Be right back.”

Meira swam over to the other girls as Lucas watched. She walked out of the water, her wet small clothes clinging to her. She then approached them and casually grabbed their wrists, walking backwards into the water, giggling like an evil gremlin. Her friends yelped and laughed, yelling at her for her evil ways.

“Mei!!” The girls screamed.

Lucas couldn’t stop grinning. It was a wonder that those two still played with Meira with how often she dragged them out of their comfort zone.

“Get Luc! He’s just staying in one place!” One of the boys yelled behind him.

That was his cue to duck underwater and evade the boisterous boys.

His head disappeared and the others gave chase swimming after him. Much splashing and yelling ensued. The boys continued to play tag while the girls had their own fun. Eventually they all played together, and the day passed by peacefully.

A fisherman was sitting on a wooden pier downstream, wondering if the children's antics were going to scare away any fish.

He needn't have worried. He caught four that afternoon.

----------------------------------------

The sun was setting. Red chased blue across the sky. The clouds burned on the horizon and shadows crept out from the trees. Birds sang from their branches and crickets filled the air with their chirps.

Four boys and three girls were walking back home from a day of swimming. This time they weren’t running. They slowly made their way home even as they yawned and trudged along.

Meira was holding one of the girls' hands, leading her along and preventing her from stumbling. Little Shani was practically asleep on her feet.

“We should go and explore that cave tomorrow.” One of the boys, Gillian, suggested from up in front.

“The one that belonged to that bear?” Lucas asked from beside him.

“It’s not there anymore. They’ve likely made a pelt out of it now. So, it must be empty.” Gillian said.

“You’re always so reckless.” Elena muttered from next to Meira. That made Meira smile. The tall girl always had something to mutter about when it came to Gillian.

“You really don’t want to see your tenth winter, huh?” Tanu, the cheeky carefree elf, prodded Gillian in his side.

“Yeah, what if it had a mate? Or a cub?” Asked Meira’s cousin, Avan. He was walking with his arms behind his head and watched some birds flit around between the trees.

“If it had a cub, we could just capture it and train it.” Of course, that was his genius idea.

“...idiot.” Elena muttered. Both she and Meira shook their heads.

“And if it had a mate?” Tanu asked.

“Then...” Gillian hesitated. “Then we tell the hunters.” He finished simply and proudly.

“After outpacing a sprinting bear?” Tanu poked again.

Gillian shrugged the tall boy off. The elf just giggled.

They all walked for a bit in silence before more giggling could be heard. This time it was coming from Lucas.

“What’s so funny?!” Gillian asked indignantly.

Meira was already smirking, and she didn’t even know what gave him the giggles.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about you riding a bear cub and falling on your face.”

All the children, except for Shani and Gillian, thought about that particular image before they all fell into a fit of giggles alongside Lucas.

“Hey, I wouldn’t fall off!” Came the typical rebuttal. “I would be the best Beast Tamer!”

All the others laughed all the harder at that declaration. The boys continued to argue about what to do the next day and the girls, the ones who were still fully awake, just listened. Outlandish idea after unrealistic idea, Meira and Elena would scoff or laugh. Sometimes they would offer their own input, but mostly they were too tired to add anything to the conversation.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Close to town Meira felt Elena’s elbow jab her in the side.

She jumped and looked at the taller girl.

“I always seem to catch you staring at him, huh?” Elena whispered, teasing her friend. For a moment Meira was confused before Elena glanced knowingly to Lucas in front. Looking between her friend and the boy’s back Meira blushed, her freckles almost disappearing under the flushed red.

“Oh, yeah, is that any different from you?” She elbowed Elena right back, nodding in Gillian’s direction.

The tall girl just scoffed in a very unconvincing manner.

“It’s d-definitely not like t-that!” She stuttered. “H-Him? Very unlikely.”

“What are you two whispering about? Hmm?” Tanu suddenly asked the girls while walking backwards. He was smiling knowingly at the both of them.

Meira and Elena both sputtered and blushed, trying to deny anything that he might have heard. He just laughed and turned back around.

Elves and their good hearing...

----------------------------------------

“It was in the year eight hundred and five when Ordvane of Tamarosi attacked the border city of Avestri. His armies caught the city by surprise during the morning after their Moon Phase festival.”

The teacher was droning on in front of the classroom. The class had no more than ten students and most of them were spacing out or looking out the window with envy. The younger children attending school were able to play outside earlier than the older ones. It was a warm spring day, and everyone wanted to just lounge around outside. Or rather, most of them wanted that.

Meira was listening intently as she scratched down some notes on her paper. She was among the few that always seemed to pay attention to these lessons. Even the boring ones like History or Arithmetic. Of course, she too would prefer to go outside and explore the woods like the boys often did, or buy sweets from Anli’s store like the girls, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t focus on Mister Beneau’s words.

“Avan!” Mister Beneau snapped, his voice whipping out mid lecture. Everyone sat up straight and Avan whipped his head around from looking outside. “Care to tell me what is so interesting outside? Moreso than a war between two of the most powerful countries on this side of the Burning Sea?”

He waited for an answer as Avan was now the focus of everyone’s attention. The poor boy was having trouble forming an answer, especially since all the other children were likely hoping he could diffuse the teacher's temper. If he couldn’t, then it was likely that they might be held back until Mister Beneau was satisfied that everyone learned something from his class. That was a bit more pressure than Avan was probably expecting right then.

“Uh... I...” It didn’t look like he had an answer, and Mister Beneau was heaving an exasperated sigh. But then Avan surprised everyone. “Actually, I was just thinking about the old fort in the hills to the north. Was it made around the same time as that war?”

Meira couldn’t help but be impressed by his quick wit. Her cousin was usually lazy and avoided work where he could, but at times he displayed an intelligence that often got him out of trouble. Or into trouble. It seemed that this was one of those moments. Even Lucas, sitting two chairs away, looked impressed.

Mister Beneau stared at Avan for a long moment before sighing again. He likely knew Avan’s game here but was too tired to call him out on it.

“That lump of rock is likely older than this country, though no one knows for certain. Nor do they know who made it. And before you think about exploring that place, don’t bother. It’s been cleared out already. On multiple occasions.” Those were the teacher's thoughts on the matter, and he quickly steered everyone's attention back to the topic of war. “Now, the battle at Dorshiva Pass lasted for almost two weeks before the Elves of Cimrai Forest marched on Ordvane’s forces...”

----------------------------------------

“Man, I wish we actually got to go inside that fort. It looked so cool.” Gillian was saying. They were walking home from school and were eating some sweets they had gotten from Old Anli, the sweet seller at the town market. “But no, you lot just had to chicken out.”

“Urgh! Of course YOU wanted to potentially get hurt before your twelfth birthday! It’s almost like you want to leave your parents heartbroken! How many stupid stunts are you trying to pull before you’re even old enough to work?!” Elena was berating the boy. To which he just sighed, irritated that she was once again pulling the wind from his sails.

Lucas was walking with Tanu and they were both snickering at the other two. As the years went by, those two seemed more and more like an old married couple. Right down to the constant bickering.

“Seriously though, I kind of wanted to see the inside.” Avan mumbled to Tanu and Lucas. He was walking on Tanu’s other side from Lucas and had a piece of sweet bread in his mouth.

“Me too. It looked pretty old.” Lucas agreed with him. “I can’t help but imagine what it looked like when it was in use.”

“Yes, the history of it is quite interesting.” Tanu was nodding along and smiling. “Although, it would be nice if we all had as much enthusiasm for history class as we do with exploring.”

The other boys just laughed sheepishly at their smiling Elvish friend.

“That’s what I’ve been saying.” Shani spoke up from behind. She and Meira were bringing up the rear of their little group. “Why are you boys so obsessed with exploring? Why can’t you all sit still for longer than a day?”

“I like exploring too, Shani.” Meira told her friend while smirking.

“Ah, well, hmm...” She didn’t have a response to that, to which Meira just giggled. Shani ignored her and ate the rest of her lemon cake.

Their little group continued on through the town's streets talking about this and that. They would see off each friend as they passed by their homes, the group getting smaller and smaller. With a wave Lucas and Meira sent off Avan, who lived down the street from Meira’s home.

Now it was just the two of them, and the air between them felt a little... uncertain. Or perhaps that was just in Lucas’ head. Lately, things had been a little awkward between them, which made him a little sad. The two of them were neighbors and their parents were close friends. They practically grew up together. They played together and ate dinner at each other's homes. They weren’t quite siblings, but they were as close as two people could be without being related. At least, at that age.

They walked down the street and the silence stretched between them.

They heard humming as they walked past one home. A woman was in her front garden, tending to her flowers and herbs. The woman was singing softly to herself before she noticed the two children. She smiled at them and waved. “Good afternoon, you two. How was school?”

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Lannes. School was good. I learned something. Don’t know about Lucas, though.” Meira greeted the woman brightly.

“Hey, I learned some things.” Lucas griped at her.

Mrs. Lannes laughed. “Well, as long as you get something out of it. I know it can be a bit boring sometimes, but knowledge is good to have, even if you end up not needing it. As they say it’s better to have something and not need it, than to need something and not have it.”

The two just nodded along like good diligent children. They shared a few more words before taking their leave. The woman went right back to humming and singing to herself.

“I don’t know why you feel the need to poke fun like that.” Lucas mumbled.

Meira gave him a great big cheeky grin. “Oh? And what did we learn today?”

He gave her an unamused look before answering. “We learned that Ordvane was a decent, but ambitious general; Avan can think up excuses to not get in trouble on the spot; this country barely got away from the last war unscathed; and you still can’t handle sour sweets.”

“That last part has nothing to do with anything.” It was her turn to look unamused. She gave him a flat look.

“And what did you learn today, young lady?” Lucas asked her back with his own grin.

She grinned again, but this time it seemed secretive, like she knew something no one else knew. “I actually learned something ...very interesting.” The ‘very’ was stretched out for suspense. Lucas just rolled his eyes.

She walked along beside him and kept her mouth shut just to tease him. When it looked like she wasn’t going to just tell him, Lucas let out a small sigh. She wanted him to drag it out of her.

“If you’re going to tell me then just spit it out.” He told her while nudging her side with an elbow.

She flinched and giggled but refused to say anything. Her grin was infectious as Lucas continued to poke her in the ribs.

“Tell me, tell me, go on, tell me. We both know you want to.” He chanted at her, to which she remained stubbornly silent. “You’re just dying to tell me, right?”

“Hmmm...” She shrugged and tilted her head from side to side, murmuring with noncommittal sounds.

“Alright then, I guess it doesn’t matter.” Lucas abruptly dropped the subject. He stopped poking her and calmly kept walking.

The sudden change caught Meira off guard. His sudden lack of interest had her blinking in confusion. Though, when she saw the easy smile on Lucas’ face, she had a feeling that she knew his game. She looked a little dissatisfied, but she stubbornly kept her mouth shut.

They stayed silent, with Lucas being the one to have a big grin while Meira was dying to tell the secret. She just didn’t want to lose whatever game they were playing. It stayed like this until they finally reached Meira’s home.

Lucas walked her to her front door, still wearing an easy smile, and turned away to walk across the street. “You have a good day, young lady.”

He made it to the halfway point between their homes before he heard her call out to him.

“I heard the teachers talking about hiring a Magus!”

And now the secret was out. And what a secret that was. Lucas turned around; eyes wide at the news. He trotted back over to her with questions.

“Really?” He asked first, to which she nodded with smugness. She may have been the one to lose that small game, but she got what she wanted in the end. “Did they say when? Are they going to test us soon? What does it even cost to get one–”

“–Wait, wait, wait. I don’t know the details. I was eavesdropping, but they didn’t say much.” She halted his questions with a quick wave of her hands. “All I heard was that they were seriously thinking about it.”

Lucas went quiet and thought about that.

“Even so, that’s still big news.” Lucas said, nodding at his own words. “Imagine that. Becoming a Magus...”

Lucas was deep in his own head, conjuring up images of throwing fire and lightning around. He could go hunting monsters like goblins and trolls. Meira was smiling along with him, thinking of her own potential exploits with magic.

“I hope that they really do get one. We could learn everything we need to travel the world and explore ruins and find treasure. Or even get a job anywhere, like with the King’s court of Magi.” She gushed and sighed at the thought. “...if we have the potential, that is...”

“Hmm... yeah, there’s that...” Now the mood had come back down with the thought that they might not have been born with the ability to learn magic. It was generally known that not everyone could become a Magus. Lucas wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with bloodlines or not, but their little town had previously produced Magus in the past. It was just a long while ago. Many generations ago. “And there’s no guarantee that they’ll get one?”

Meira shrugged, hands up and open. “Who knows?”

Lucas sighed. “No use stressing over it then. Thanks for telling me though. Even after being a pain about it.”

The red-haired girl just giggled.

They had nothing more to say on that subject, so they said their goodbyes. Lucas left Meira and walked across the street once more. At the door to his home, he looked back, only to see the girl still standing there watching him. When she noticed him looking back, she jumped and dashed inside leaving him a little perplexed. Lucas wondered what else she had wanted to say, because why else did she stay to watch him?

He shook his head and went inside.

Sometimes that girl could be a little strange.