Kenan couldn’t formulate any words coherently enough for them to be voiced. Emotion which he had never properly experienced before boiled, and bits of it edged near the precipice. Noctis didn’t have the time to focus on holding back the incoming tide. Misdirection took him from the task. So as a result, he followed Ozzy quietly through the evergreen forest. A place so alien to his knowledge, but quite homely to his other senses.
Noctis didn’t think the half-giant minded the silence. The goliath had his own thoughts to wrestle from. Not that Kenan knew what flavor that they belonged to, but he could guess. If his assumption of arrival was correct, then his calculation would be more than a mere postulation.
More than emotion was riding the cocktails of his conscience. Knowledge, realization, a dawn of sudden comprehension. The same as before, as he watched his father and mother from afar. He knew that the epiphany was just around the corner, waiting for it to be grabbed and consumed. Kenan didn’t dare. Like an instinct, he knew it would destroy him.
The two traveled, but not in a symphony. Kenan was used to the plains of Zorain. He stepped on more sticks than he could count and his toes met even more wayward roots. Each misstep made Noctis more aware of how loud he was. Doubly when compared to Ozzy. His size wasn't a hindrance. The large gray man left almost no visible tracks and contracted even less noise. The sight was odd and contradicting.
Ozzy stopped. Kenan furthered his stride until he was parallel with the mass of living stone. Ahead of them was a crater long ago formed and reclaimed by natural force. Only for that power to be overwritten. Long and thick trees aided by magic and bordered the divet of earth. Noctis didn’t think he could squeeze between the cracks of the trees if they didn’t bend out of the way for Ozzy. Runes laced the trees with such detail and volume that they demanded power, but forced subtly. With his meta-physical sense, Noctis could follow the circuit of mana flowing through the wooden obelisk of potency.
Inside followed much of the same theme. Nature bent to the will of sentient magic. In the middle was a huge mushroom, thicker than any tree Noctis had seen. The base was carved for windows and a door. To its right was a large pond, a pathway of compact stone connected a small island. A bubble of thin mana and water enveloped the skierry. In that, were multiple hanging carcasses. Behind the fungi home was a barren training ground with only a few solemn archery targets made of wood and plant. There were a dozen other places too small to be of much significance. All the land that wasn’t used was filled with exotic herbs and plants.
Kenan heard and then saw Ozzy’s heavy breath. Deep through the nose and a shallow exhale. Then the half-giant began to inhale the air with vigorous greed. The goliath smiled. A true, genuine smirk. “Do you smell that?!” He laughed.
Noctis took the area’s scent. The air was crisp. Fresh to the point of being sharp. It was good, breath came easy, and left reluctantly. The aroma was similar. Very much so. It wafted from the brothers every once and a while. Usually after they bathed. Crushed clematis.
“Home,” Ozzy said. His smile faded. “Home.” Somber.
“The ranger?” Kenan asked.
“Yes.”
“Didn’t you…”
Ozzy nodded. “Yes, I caused his death.” He looked over the home. He sat, and a chair of stone formed beneath him. Another was birthed and he motioned for Kenan to sit. Noctis did so. “Watch carefully, young Mortem. You have more than one lesson to learn from me. From my past.”
Noctis didn’t know how to respond. Anything appropriate melded into a numbness delivered by the overwhelming tide barely damned up his head. Thoughts started to stray, but the appearance of two figures gave him a point of focus.
Both were gray and had light black lines crossing their skin in birth tattoos coveted by the Goliaths. He knew the faces. Oz and Ozzy. Each looked the same as they did now, with only age yet to be experienced. A story not yet told. They walked the path leading to the mushroom house. A conversation took place. The distinct words were lost to his ears except for the faintest of whispers. Somehow, he still knew the direction of the discussion, but just the echoes of the topic.
The gray brothers were coming back from a hunt. No. A fight, a battle. They had been successful. They rode a high of victory and engaged in brotherly comodery. They teased each other, tugging at strings that unfurled to laughs and smiles. It was happy and joyful.
The door opened to the magical house. A man came out. Kenan knew. Without his previous knowledge, he knew. The memory before him was Ozzys. Noctis understood that. Yet the feeling of warmth spreading in his chest was so familiar he could’ve confused his emotion with Ozzy’s. The new man, a half-ef, was a father. Not by blood, but that scarcely mattered.
Greetings, tidings, and other things were exchanged. All of it positive. Good. The feeling that ran through his chest conveyed peace and a rare belonging. A piece in a puzzle. A horse in a stable, un-saddled, and comfortable. A single stone of a mountain. A member of a family. Kenan yearned for the times were this emotion was truly his.
Excitement exploded in a wave. The scene skipped, reverted, and corrected itself. The coherence of the memory fogged over but became clear as Ozzy’s mind changed its direction to the nearest chronicle event. Ozzy, Oz, and Barren, the goliath’s adoptive father, all stood in the spartan training yards. Wide grins were shared. The goliaths held weapons in their hands. They both carefully inspected the arms. But it didn’t take long for the respect of a new piece of steel to wear off. Their swings and their shallow shadow fights were awkward and weird. They each not accustomed the weight or balance.
Kenan's mind tugged at him, not from the undercurrents of previous events, but his subconscious recognizing an event happening. Noctis shifted his weight forward and peered. Sight revealed nothing. His mind expanded and he opened the perception to look beyond, beneath the physical, and into the mechanics of magic. He saw less but felt more. Bonds. One was shared between the brothers, of course, but two more were just birthed. At least, for now, they were insignificant. Tiny strands connected the goliaths to their new weapons.
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A lesson was to be learned. A recurring event in his life. Bonds, the formation of pacts. Something was here.
Before any further rumination, it was impeded by the scene changing once more. This time, it was natural. The real-time action of events remembered correctly. In fact, everything was more vivid. Kenan couldn’t pick something out that had greater detail. It was a feeling. A memory forever engraved. He had a few of those himself.
Oz was called and corralled by Barren. He herded the large stone man inside the house and left Ozzy to continue training. A shock of curiosity that was deeply laced with jealousy pulsed. The goliath snuck up to the house and hid under a window as he listened intently. Kenan already knew what was being said. He had been told by the talkative brother a while ago. But the following feelings of pain, betrayal, and above all. Rage. Forcefully showed him just the gravity of the confession.
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The anger that built, and used its dividends to climb higher was so similar. It was only separated by the recognition that the firestorm that billowed wasn’t held by Kenan. But that was the feedback from Ozzy. What, who was his anger for? He knew. He thought he knew. From the back of his brain came the awareness that he wasn’t ready for. Noctis pulled back the ignorance in a close bid.
The door became obsolete as Ozzy smashed the wall down. Cracks formed on the mushroom. Stone embedded itself into the magical fungi and anger ignited the goliath's magic. He went in. Fury. Betrayal. Pain. Agony. All caused deeper emotional scars than anything physical could. The loss of a tribe, a mother. Ozzy was flung out of the house and tumbled head over foot. Each time the goliath thudded against the ground another pulse of venom-laced rage took over.
As he stood, Oz emerged from the building as lighting crackled down his arms. A visible burn mark covered Ozzy’s chest. As a response, he lifted his hammer and struck the ground. Earth shuddered free a huge block, it floated for a brief moment before being sent flying with a straight kick. As it flew, Oz copied the movement and a lighting strike intercepted the stone. It shattered.
Words were exchanged. Noctis lost the exacts, but its comprehension wasn’t. This conversation was beyond Barren. It cut deeper into something that was just more. Their connection was weighed by an invisible scale and was found lacking. Both the metaphysical one and the true shared bond between twins were strained. A point of decision. This was another lesson.
A thrown ax ended the chat. Blue-lined energy followed the weapon. Ozzy stuck his hammer in the ground and a wall of earth formed. The axe stopped its forward momentum before it hit and began to spin. The lighting became too compact; it turned the weapon into a homegunes wheel of blue that crackled. A small cut formed on the wall, gradually it became greater as the ax slowly pushed forward.
Ozzy held stalwart. using more and more mana to withhold the onslaught. On the other hand Oz dash forward. As he closed in on the wall, he jumped and grabbed the ax from the spell. Ozzy felt the pressure release and had a sudden moment of confusion. Oz cleared the wall and used the slight advantage. With the flat of his axe, he crashed onto his brother's shoulder.
Ozzy followed the momentum and rolled back. The earth swallowed his hammer, and then regurgitated it right back up, below Oz. A crack was heard as the goliath's jaw was broken and displaced. He landed with a hard thud, and his brother stood over him. Without wasting time, Oz threw his axe from the ground and it was a narrow miss from Ozzy’s face. The axe was caught with a string of mana as it spun in the air.
The raging half-giant smashed the ground. A lighting bolt shot up and connected with the cyclone of power, and Oz was suspended in the air. Not intending to press the attack, Oz sent the other half of the spell twenty yards. Another flash and he landed hard on the ground.
Kenan soaked the battle in. He didn’t know if it was intentional or not, but another teaching was upon him. Something Doco had overlooked or was not recognized in his short magical lessons. But the magic, their magic, it was different. Something in their power was not as tangible in their spells. It had a deficiency of a certain punch that he was used to, a missing outward potency of authority from their magic in the real world. He knew a certain truth was around the corner and he lacked the foundation of mana theory to properly grasp it. A weakness he would supplement in the future.
Not only that, but the differences in tome magic were evident. Every spell had been just that. Mana made and molded into a specific pattern to create an attack of monotonous behavior. Kenan had overcome the infirmity of versatility by chance. His tome magic taught him to understand the creation of fire with magic. Everything else was by himself. He had set attacks, but everyone was slightly different. In accentuating circumstances, Noctis could alter such attacks to fit his needs or create new ones on the fly. That wasn’t to say his style of magic was significantly more powerful, he had often used too much mana for an effect that only needed very little.
The battle in front of him wasn’t one of decisive blows. No side held more power over the other. It was a simple, all-out grind on who lasted longer. A contest of attrition. Both had long ago lost power in their cores and were dragging through mana deprivation. The flower bed that coated the small homestead was burned and marked. Large swaths of it were uprooted or heated to the point of a small few petrifying while the others wilted under a growing fire. The small pond now resembled a large creator with its water dispersed. Shards of stone large enough to crush a person pinned the mushroom creation. Mana leaked from the structure and as it no longer had the pathways to uphold it. Even the strong tree barrier was torn and scratched.
Ozzy stood over his counterpart. Both brothers were bloodied past the point of recognition. Breath was hard, but the staring contest between the two was harder to endure. Feeling. Exaltation in the most bitter of ways. They spoke with their eyes. Ozzy turned and walked towards the house. Pain. Trepidation followed with hesitation. Oz yelled, violent and desperate to gather his strength. His words were incoherent to Kenan, but the emotion he radiated was enough for him to understand.
The next few moments were lost to Noctis' eyes. In the falling house, a tense conversation took place. Threats met the calm, love countered hatred, and the son crossed the father. He knew. Even though Ozzy yelled at him, and begged him, Barren wouldn’t defend himself. Ozzy went to find an enemy but only found family, and it frustrated him. The house fell down and Kenan could finally see.
Ozzy had his hammer raised. He yelled and swung down. It connected with Barren in the chest. Noctis knew it was enough to cave in his ribcage and puncture his lungs. He was going to die and it was only a matter of time. The goliath dropped his weapon and leaned over his father. The man who took him in and gave everything. Loved when he didn't need to. Tought instead of neglected. In a matter of moments, the wrongness of his actions was understood and learned in the worst way.
Another conversation. Sorrowful. Begging. Ozzy knew now just how much he needed this man. Regardless of the past. The chat ended with the only coherent words Kenan had heard during the duration of this dream.
“It was never you. I'm sorry.”
Quicker than the Goliath had time to react. Barren used the last bit of his strength to grasp a dagger on his side and shove it in his chest. It slid past his battered ribs and pierced his heart.