The chilly wind blew through an open window to rouse the room’s inhabitant from his state of rest. As the boy slowly rubbed his eyes of the sleep that enshrouded them, he let out a yawn revealing some rather sharp canines. Rising to his feet, the boy walked instinctively to a bowl placed near the window and dip his hands into its liquid content. Water giving his hand a slight chill, he brought them back up towards his face, splashing it with water to finally rid himself of the curse of sleepiness. Mind cleared and face washed, he leaned back and took a long inhale of fresh morning air, stretching his body in the process. Sigh escaping him as the boy relaxed his body and thought of the exciting day today was going to be. Monica’s birthday was today. And he, her only friend in the new town, was obviously invited. Though his giddiness for the day’s activity was not caused solely by the fact that it was his friend’s birthday. Because today was not just a birthday, it was the sixth birthday for Monica. A date that held quite a significant sway over the rest of her life. It was today that the world would reveal Monica’s [blessing]. Something both the girl and boy greatly covet to see. So it was with that knowledge that Taryn went down the stairs to the dining area with a spring in his step. He had his usual breakfast with Thomas of soup and bread before heading out with the man like everyday. They had their daily trek towards the guild house, though instead of walking into the guild,they stopped at space between it and the “Big inn” with Thomas giving a few words to the boy.
“I’ve already talked to Agatha before. She seems like a nice person so I can leave you with her for the day. But I don’t want you getting into any trouble. So remember to stick to the girl of her since she will probably look after her daughter more. Still, have fun alright kid.”
“Sure. see you later old man.”
Rubbing the boy’s head affectionately, Thomas ushered him away and turned back into the guild house. Immediately upon reaching the inn’s proximity, the wolf boy’s tail began to wag as he saw his friend and what appeared to be her mother. The woman could not be anything else in his opinion with her blue hair, elven feature of pointy ears and a face that was eerily similar to Monni’s. That, and the fact that Monica has already told him that her mother would be there and gave him a few details about the woman. Walking over happily, he was fixed with a judging stare from the older woman. Under such a gaze, the boy’s more primal instinct told him to run, told him that there was another predator standing in front of him and studying him. With that uneasy feeling halting his steps, the boy originally brisk pace was slowed down to a more subdued one. Finally in front of the two, the boy gave a brief greeting to his friend before turning to her rather intimidating companion and giving a rather shy hello.
“Um. Hello, Miss Agatha. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Aren’t you a polite one. It’s nice to meet you too. It seems you already know my name and Monica has told me about you. So we can get introductions out of the way. I’m sure you would love to get on with the ceremony to make Monica match you.”
“What do you mean ma’am?” the boy asked in befuddlement.
“Well. You do have your blessing already right? Monica was always complaining about losing to you in training even if she got a few shots in.”
“Erm. No, I don’t have mine yet. I’m only six in 3 months.”
“Really now,” the woman then turned her gaze over her daughter, “looks like you need to put in more effort then, young lady.”
“But, mommm. He does nothing but train, eat and sleep. I have my story books to read. That’s not fair.”
As Monica was about to add more to her argument about how the boy had better senses and physical power as a beastman, Agatha cut her off with a withering glare and spoke up.
“We will discuss this later. Now let’s get moving, I don’t want to let the people of the guild waiting for so long.”
With the topic of more training postponed, Monica seemed to regain the spring to her step as the girl quickly took the boy’s hand and practically dragged him to the guild building. Two children running ahead and an adult following, the trio entered the guild house and moved towards the reception desk. There, the familiar face of Lanna greeted them.
“Oh, you’re here Agatha,” the receptionist said before turning to the smaller elf, “And are you excited for your [blessing] Monica?”
“Of course. I’m finally going to beat Tar with it,” she declared as her eyes shined with mischief.
“Oh really now? Then we better hurry up to the ceremony room so you can have your victory that much sooner.”
Saying thus, Lanna guided the group up a stair to the right of the desk. After passing the stairs, they arrived at a corridor with five doors on the right and an identical numbers of windows on the left. Moving down the corridor, Lanna stopped at the last door before the corridor turned right. Upon entrance to the room, the two pairs of adults and children were welcomed by a large magic crystal covered lines of magical scriptures at the center of a magic circle made up of intricate symbols and additional scriptures. As she closed the door behind the group, Lanna got down to the business of preparing the ceremony. She carefully added small amounts of mana intermittently along the circle and then went to the orb to recalibrate the magic crystal output to be a bit higher for Monica’s expected rare [blessing]. After the preparation, Lanna began to guide Monica through the steps of manifesting her [blessing].
“First, you need to put your hand onto the magic crystal at the center,” Lanna waited for Monica to follow her directions before continuing,”After that, should be able to feel a small pushing of mana at your fingertips.”
“I can feel it, what do I do now.”
“Now you need to let it flow into you. And don’t worry, the crystal and magic circle has been modified to only release the minimum amount needed to stimulate your blessing.”
Nodding, Monica eased the mana slowly into her system. Next to her, the other child inside the room bore witness to the peculiar sight of his friend glowing a faint blue, the distinctive color of mana. As the glow grew steady after encompassing the girl’s body, Lanna gave out the last instructions.
“At this point, you should feel a tingling sensation around your chest,” receiving a nod she continued,”Good, now I want you to close your eyes and imagine yourself pull on that sensation. It should come to you easily enough.”
And so the girl closed her eyes and picture the tingling to be pulled from her chest. It was a bit slow going, but the feeling of some flow of energy throw a sort of funnel was growing stronger as she concentrated further. After an unknown amount of time, the girl was hit with a sense of epiphany, her powers and its basic principle were imprinted upon her mind. After the surreal experience, the girl started bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.
“Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I have something cooler than mom’s spirit animals,” the girl cheered before suddenly turning around to face her supposed rival, “And I can finally beat you now.”
“Oh really,” the boy replied sarcastically, “What can you do now anyways? You spent a whole hour in there so it should be something good. Can’t have you be too weak for me.”
“On. It’s good alright,” the girl manifested a ghostly green arrow notched on her bow and loosed it in his direction, all the while grinning. Caught off guard, the boy let the arrow hit his shoulder. Or at least that was what the arrow should have done. It instead phased through him and embedded itself into the far wall before dissipating.
“I can make these spirit weapons with [spirit arrows]. They can phase through thing at my will. So. No. More. Blocking. Mister-train-all-the-time.”
“Eh? Your not gonna shoot me with them right. I mean those are pretty sharp,” the boy nervously pointed towards the mark in the wall.
“No, I won’t. Not those. But I can shoot these blunt ones,” the girl create an arrow with an enlarged and rounded tip to demonstrate and fired it with a thud into the boy’s gut, “They still hurt enough for my goal,” feral grin still on her face as she finished the last line.
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Cutting the little one’s fantasy of vengeance, Agatha called out.
“Ehem. Your powers seem to be very useful. Though I would need further demonstrations at home to work out something to train you with. Now though, let’s get to the party part of today. I’m taking you both to the food center for lunch. How does that sound?”
“Yayyy, can we go to the dwarven stalls, they make the best cakes,” the cheerful girl replied.
“Um. What is the food center?” the boy followed up curiously.
At hearing the boy’s query, the girl quickly turned around to shoot him an incredulous look.
“What do you mean ‘what is the food center’? Have you really not been there once for the two months I have known you?”
A quick nod confirmed her suspicions and strengthened her resolve.
“You MUST go to it then.”
Saying thusly, the girl began her righteous march to bring the ignorant that was her friend to the food center with the mother giggling in the background.
Several minutes of walking, dragging, later and the food center can be noticed through both its distinctive appearance and scent. The designated gathering of over a hundred stalls from different cultures and races was covered by a tanned piece of tarp stretched over an oblong frame. From the trio’s and many others’ point of view, the whole structure looked like an oversized loaf of bread that smelled of almost every style of cuisine on the continent. As they approached further, the group was now able to see the individual stalls under the tarp and a certain member started to increase her pace as a result. The increase in pace can also be attributed to the decrease in resistance the only male member had to being pulled around. Only brought about by the distracting scent of so much food in his presence. Flooding his senses were the smell of the elves’ fresh vegetable dishes, the dwarves’ finely baked goods, his own race’s rice creations, and the human’s interesting uses of meat. Though amongst the smells he picked up, there was one smell that was familiar as well as disliked, Alcohol. To this day, the child could not see why the men in the diner drank so much of the stuff everytime dinner rolled around. The smells then began to lean more towards the elven side as Monica dragged the group towards a selection of stalls that gave Taryn a pause.
“Why are we at a vegetable stall? I thought you hated vege…”
His sentence was halt mid-way as Monica swung a hand over his shoulder to pull him further towards the stall and whispered.
“I eat cooked veggies just fine. Now we are going to turn back and you do not ask about this infront of mom. Are we good?”
A nod received, Monica turned them around after a bit of browsing through the stalls to ensure things looked natural. Returning to her mother, the girl gave a spirited suggestion, “Let’s eat over there,” and pointed towards a rather interesting stall. Said stall was manned by an interracial couple of male elf and catkin female and served a main dish of stir fried rice with vegetables. Laughing a bit at her daughter’s peculiar choice, Agatha ushered both into a table among the ones that circled the stall. Once settled down, the cat girl walked by and gave each a small menu. Both mother daughter quickly gave their orders of the stall’s specialty and the boy had his with some extra meat. They all dug in and marveled at the unique taste of the dish. The rice with its fluffy texture mingled harmoniously with the flavours and crunch of the eclectic mix of vegetables creating a delectable combination. After a bit of silent appreciation for the meal, Monica spoke up.
“What are we doing after this mom? The cake from the dwarven side is obvious. But what else?”
“Hm? We have a little surprise for you two left at the guild. Now eat up so we...”
“Sure thing mom. You too Tar,” not letting Agatha finish, Monica was already trying to inhale her meal and rushing Taryn too. The boy, however, was somewhat peeved at being dragged around and started to slow his usually fast eating pace down, appearing to enjoy every bite. The slight against her did not go unnoticed and Monica fixed him with a glare. Snickering a little at his successful jab, Taryn returned his pace to normal. With no more disturbances, the meal ended a few minutes later and the group made their way back to the guild. Monica completely forgetting the cake that she was so eager to eat prior to the announcement of the surprise.
After the rather brief trip, made only possible by Monica’s excitement fueled rush, the three entered the guild around early afternoon. Upon entering, Taryn received a welcomed surprise of Thomas sitting and idly chatting with Lanna. Rushing over to the older man, Taryn asked.
“What are you still doing here old man? Aren’t you supposed to be doing a job request or something?”
“But I did. Miss Agatha hired me to prepare that ‘surprise’ in the training room you two are always in. I had to put in some...”
A cough from the elder elf stopped Thomas from letting the cat out of the bag for the dog to chase.
“Ehem. How about we don’t tell the children and let them see for themselves, Thomas,” Agatha chastised as she moved both of the children into the private training room that they have been in for almost every day of the two months.
Once inside, the first noticeable anomaly within the room was that instead of the open center where roughly ten men can swing swords without obstruction, there was an installation of round platforms set at different heights. Further in the back of the room, one can also see a multitude of target boards for archery. The last bit of adage to the room was a bookshelf located to the right of the entrance. As the two children continued to inspect the room and its changes, Taryn the training equipment and Monica the shelf of books, Thomas added in from outside the door.
“You two better like it because those took me all morning to put up. And Monica, you mom asked me to pick this up and give it to you guys when you get here.”
Thomas then pulled from behind his back a palm-sized cake topped with six candles and handed to the children along with two spoons. The children occupied, He turned around, expression losing some of the positivity and walked back into the guild hall, over to the waiting elf.
“So, what did you think of the kid?”
“He was quite shy and didn’t talk very much to me. Though he seemed rather snarky with Monica. Could you tell me why?”
“Oh. That? Sure, he gets like that. If you meet him often enough, he’ll open up and be snarky. Kid kinda picked it up from me when I was with him. He just uses it mostly to complain about the running during training.”
“Speaking of that, how much do you train him? I know my three times a week schedule with my daughter is quite harsh for a child. Yet she called your kid a ‘mister-train-all-the-time’. So now I am rather curious.”
“Erm. I think we do it every afternoon until night fall. We do a bit more on…”
“Hold it. Why do you push him so much?”
“I don’t. He wants to do it all, except maybe the running. And I can’t really turn things down if he is so eager.”
“Still. Why would he try so much? And you can always stop him forcefully. Kids needs their playtime.”
“Kid’s been through hell like me. He found a way out. Not the best one. But he did. That’s better than me. So who am I to stop him,” Thomas’ face fell quite a bit as he remembered the whole ordeal and the morning after.
“Wait a minute. What do you mean he’s been through hell?” Agatha looked askance at the man across from her.
“Huh? Oh. Right. You didn’t know. You got here a month after we did. News must’ve died down. Give me a minute,” Thomas then went into his satchel and pulled out a form, “this is the written form that came along with our compensation. It gave a very detailed account of the ‘incident’ that I have dubbed hell. You’re free to read it.”
After a minute of reading it and gaining the largest frown she wore that day, Agatha slammed the form down and released a deep sigh.
“So he witnessed that. And then decided to just devote himself to training so he can forget and now it’s all he knows.”
“Yeah. That’s pretty much it,” Thomas readily agreed, all too willing to gloss over details to avoid recollection.
“And you decided to just foster his twisted growth. What were you thinking?”
“I was going to fix that later. And then you and your kid came. I saw he had a friend. So it was good enough.”
Silently contemplating the man’s logic, Agatha rose from the thoughts when she recalled the small bit Thomas added about himself earlier.
“And what did you mean by ‘that’s better than me’?”
Thomas gained the thousand-yard stare as he tonelessly replied.
“The kid moved on, I didn’t. I thought I did the first few days with the nightmares gone and maybe raising the kid again. But a few more days in, I couldn’t seem to care anymore, too old and tired to. The world lost its luster and will never gain it back. The kid’s smiling face as he trains stopped being pleasant and became a reminder of what I could not have. Joy and purpose. The only reason I’m still with the kid and not out there drinking it all away is because of a promise I made to take care of him until he grew up.”
The female elf began to seethe at his depressing statement.
“How can you not move on for him? I lost people too, I’m even older than you. Yet I’m there for Monica. What’s your excuse beyond an “I’m done” huh?”
The thousand yard stare was usurped by a heated glare as the man retorted with equal heat.
“She is YOUR kid. He’s not mine. Mine was gone long ago,” He choked up a bit at the mention before smoothing his expression and continuing, “And I will still give him the same things I did back then. I’m just rushing things a bit so he can be on his own sooner and see me less. When he hits fifteen and can venture on his own as an adult I can let go. Heck, I’ll even throw in a recommendation for Merc Union.”
The man’s eyes changed as heat was ousted by determination. Just as Agatha was about to spew forth with righteous fury on how his resolve was misplaced, Thomas stood up and left the guild after a few parting words.
“Thank you for your concerns. But I will live how I want.”