A caravan was enroute to the south eastern gate of Central Aurora. Its passengers a typical blend of human adventurers and merchants save for two rather special individual. One was a female elf carrying a face that gave and air of age and tiredness. Yet her eyes still held an edge to them regardless of the crows feet that accompanied them. Her head of blue hair was speckled with white was pulled up in a high ponytail for convenience access to the quiver of arrows on her back. Accompanying the set of quiver was a treant heart wood longbow, disguised as one of average make by a clever use of paint, and a set of faded cloth armor.

Her ever playful companion was a hyperactive elven five-year-old with hair of blue in a small brown dress. The child’s short mop of unruly blue, not done up in any style, was bouncing up and down along with the little of bundle of energy as she gazed out towards the tall and imposing gates frome the carriage.

Seeing the annoyance in the other passengers’ eyes and ever growing excitement within the child’s, the woman addressed the little ball of sunshine.

“Enough Monica. We’ll get there eventually. Now could you please sit down and behave. You are bothering the others.”

“But I can’t help it. I finally get to see a big town. It was always forests and villages before. Why couldn’t we just visit the capital when we passed it, momma?”

“I already told you. I don’t want anything to do with another mess like the capital.”

“But it looked clean when we walked passed it.”

Sighing and rubbing her temples at the child’s logic, the elf tried again.

“Mommy just doesn’t like it there. Ok. Now just sit down little missy. The town is not going anywhere.”

“But…”

“No buts. Or we are camping out again. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes…”

The adult allowed herself a victorious smirk as the child sulkily sat back down. The smirk slowly turned into a small frown as she heard her daughter mumble about how great it would be to live in a big city again.

Hearing the innocent comment, she could not help but think of why they were here. She had wanted to move Monica away from the elven republic that carried so many memories of her late husband, the father Monica could not remember from her infantile years. She knew it was a cowardly move to do so, but she could not bare staying there anymore. And so, here they were after traversing the great expanse that was the elven border and the entirety of the human empire of Mennes. And as much as she berated her child, she herself also felt a sense of giddiness that entering Central Aurora garnered.

The city was not simply grand in the sense of size like other capital cities around the continent. It was also grand in it’s sheer importance and diversity. Both attributes only feasible due to the fact that the Aurora Line that it belonged to was the only few connections that existed between the largest source of magic crystals, the Unknown. This gave it the role of a major trading hub between all of the races, marking its importance. Diversity naturally came with trade as adventurers and merchants from every ethnic would flock towards such a melting pot.

The mother’s appreciation of the city was cut short as the caravan, and subsequently her carriage, stopped at the gates for inspection. The change was also picked up by Monica as she perked up and looked towards her mother.

Sighing, the adult took the child by the hand and alighted from their carriage. Leaving the merchants to get their wares checked, the duo along with the adventurers with less baggage moved towards the smaller personnel gate by the side to gain entry earlier. A line was formed and the two were somewhere in the middle. The wait was not too long, yet still short enough for the older of the two to go over her course of action.

She would first have to re-register with the adventurer’s guild affiliated with the city, she would then need to find a way for Monica to be properly educated and finally, she had to squeeze in some training for the little girl. Plan mapped out again, she turned her attention back to reality and found that they were up next. Handing her current guild card, one associated with the elves, she waited for the guard to verify it.

“Alright, Miss Agatha, you are free to pass. But your current card can only act as a basic citizenship and a new adventurer’s card needs to be made for this city.”

“Thank you for the reminder. I was planning on doing that first after I gain entry.”

“Is that so? Then here is your map of the city. Have a nice stay ma’am.”

Inspections done, Agatha lead Monica into the city and headed for the guild house at the center.

The trip through the residential area for commoner was quite different between the two elves. One saw so many new things and people, wanted to move out an interact with it all and was frustrated at being pulled back constantly by the adult. The other was just simply annoyed at having to constantly reign in a child that was intent on entering a completely foreign community to talk to strangers. It was in this manner that the two reached their destination as the afternoon sun died down a bit.

Yet the end of the trip did not end the struggle between mother hen and her chick. If anything, the struggle only grew as the small girl was exposed to the much more interesting looking crowd of adventurers from different races. Finally making her way to the receptionist desk and cursing the designers for putting it so far from the door, Agatha got down to her business.

“Excuse me. I would like to make a registration for a guild card.”

The receptionist that responded to her request was a familiar middle aged woman with the name tag “Lanna”

“Certainly ma’am. I would like you to fill out this form then.”

Before the receptionist can hand her the paper, Agatha put her old card on the table.

“That would be unnecessary. I have my old card here. You can simply use it as reference and transfer my information as well as qualifications over to the new one.”

“Alright. Then I need you to wait for a few minutes while I transcribe the information from your previous card to the new one.”

The receptionist got down to making Agatha’s new card, allowing the mother to look down at the squirming girl in her and be reminded of her second task. Monica’s education was important. But so was the girl herself. And a regular school was not what Agatha would deem sufficient protection for her precious daughter. So her options were either homeschooling Monica by herself or getting someone else to do so. The hands-on approach was quickly ruled out as she still had to complete job requests to keep the pair afloat so that only leaves the latter option. That presented another problem. Who was she to trust with? She did not have any contact within this city. Before she could further delve into the dilemma, Agatha was roused from her contemplation by a cough.

“I have finished with the procedure, here is your new card,” handing Agatha her new card, Lanna continued, “I might seem a bit intrusive. But what was on your mind back then? I can guess it was something to do with the little cutie down there,” Lanna gestured towards the blue mop swishing every which way just below the desk. Just as Agatha was about to answer the question and further inquire on a method of hiring a dependable tutor, a man’s voice called out from behind her to Lanna.

“Hey Lanna. I’m here for Taryn, could you get him out for me.”

Hearing the request of her friend, Lanna quickly addressed her current client.

“My apologies, he has a daily appointment. But he was rather early today. If you could excuse me, I will be right back with you in a moment to answer any more questions you might have.”

Saying thus, the receptionist bowed and moved into the back. Agatha, respecting the receptionist’s choice, stayed standing there and turned her eyes over towards the male while she waited. He looked rather old, bordering on fifty or sixty. A rare age for their profession that spoke of both his skill and experience. Though the cheap looking standard set of leather armor took away a bit from his image of a veteran. The rather well-crafted set of scimitar and round shield on his back, however, returned it in full with interest.  

Pulling her eyes away from her inspection, Agatha spotted Lanna returning. Behind her a small wolfkin boy with black hair dressed in a simple set of brown shirt and pants was rubbing his eyes sleepily. When they arrived at the desk, the child walked on his own over to the waiting man while muttering,”Why are you so early old man,” and rubbing his eyes some more. The man just replied.

“The job today was easier, I didn’t have to wander too far to get to the monster. Now let’s go back to the inn. You get extra training today.”

“Is it more sword training or more running?” the boy asked dubiously.

“You‘ll know when we are back. Now get to running.”

“Fine.”

After the short exchange, the duo departed in their usual manner of child running and man walking with faster and longer strides. As the figures left the guild house, Agatha turned a curious look towards Lanna.

“They had an agreement with me before to take care of the boy. And back to my question from before. What were you thinking about?”

“I was wondering how I could take care of the little one’s education and security. And you’ve just given me an idea. I need a reliable caretaker for little Monica and you are a part of the guild’s staff. I can also guess that the wolf boy is the only one you have to take care of right now, otherwise the guild would have started to advertise babysitting as one of its services. So could I implore you to take care of another one. I will handle any charges you deem suitable for your troubles. I know she can be a handful sometimes. Do we have an agreement?””

“Well, if you trust me with her then I suppose i can. Do not spread this around too much though. I don’t want to start a babysitting service. The terms can be discussed after I get a day with the little miss. You can drop her off tomorrow morning. Now is there anything else you would like to inquire on?”

“Not really. You can just show me to the guild affiliated inn and we will be out of your hair.”

“The “Big Inn” is to the right of the guild house. I’m surprised you have not seen it yet. It got the nickname from its size after all.”

“I was a little busy keeping a leash on my daughter to see the inn. I will see you tomorrow.”

Her goodbye said, Agatha walked out of the guild and turned right to see the enormous inn. Dwarfing the already impressive guild house, the “Big Inn” was a five storey behemoth of wood and stone with two separate wings, the west wing and the east wings, each housing roughly one hundred rooms.

Shaking her head as to how she could miss such an obvious structure, Agatha lead Monica inside. The inn’s interior mirrored the many inns she has visited before on her travels as an adventurer with a reception area in front of the door, stairs to the sides and dining hall on the ground floor of the left wing. The only difference was the size of it all was scaled up with the “Big Inn” and its monumental size.

Walking briskly to the reception desk, Agatha quickly presented her new guild card and paid a deposit before grabbing her room key and ushering Monica upstairs. Arriving at their room L203, Agatha dropped the baggage she did have and took Monica down for a bath in the public bath house on the ground floor of the right wing.

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Cleaned and refresh, mother and daughter had a quick dinner, or what would have been one had Agatha not been forcing Monica to eat her veggies while the child vehemently refused. Tiring dinner finished, the two retired for the night.

The morning heralded a new day and a new struggle between mother and child. The battle that was characterized by daughter pulling around mother was reversed. A bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Agatha was lugging around a zombie Monica from the bathroom to the diner and then out towards the adventurer’s guild. It was only thanks to he trip and the cold morning air that Monica was actually awake enough to hand over to Lanna. Her charge delivered, Agatha moved over to the job board on the right after a small goodbye.

Now left without her mother, Monica turned to the other adult.

“Is the other boy here yet, I wanna meet him.”

“He is already in one of the staff rooms going over his lessons for the day. He started a bit sooner than you so I gave him some extra revisions to do while I bring you up to speed. Now follow me.”

Saying so, Lanna lead Monica into one of the staff rooms where she got a better look at the wolf boy. He had a messy head of black hair, two pointy ears atop of the uncombed mop and a tail that was swishing rhythmically from side to side. His facial features were rather nice looking and soft as was with any child. Said features were set in a blank state as he focused on the new words presented to him. A little too focused that he failed to notice the appearance of the new girl. As Lanna was about to bring a children’s picture book out to teach the girl a few new words, Monica spoke up.

“Momma already taught me some words already. Can I just study with the same stuff as he is?”

“I don’t see the harm in it. But first, introduce yourself to your study buddy.”

Realisation suddenly dawned on Monica as she whirled around to face the boy again. Waving exaggeratedly, she called out.

“Hi. My name’s Monica, what’s yours?”

The boy jumped from the surprise introduction and then regarded the female with a confused stare before he remembered the lessons on how people greet each other normally.

“I’m taryn. What are you doing here?” he asked her before noticing Lanna behind them and directed a question towards her while pointing at Monica, “What’s she doing here?”

“She is …”

“I’m your new study buddy. It’s going to be so much fun.”

“Okay then. But how will it be fun. Studying is pretty bor…” he cut himself off as he realized Lanna was still in the room. Coughing into her hand to get the attention of the two children, Lanna began.

“Ehem. As I was saying. She will be studying with you from now on. And since I was not expecting to teach you two the same things, I did not prepare more. So you will be sharing those for the lessons. Okay?”

Receiving two nods, she continued.

“So today we will be learning a bit about [blessing]. Can you two tell me something you already know.”

Taryn raised his hand smoothly in a practiced manner while Monica shot her off with almost enough momentum to lift herself up while repeating “Me. Me. Me.” Sighing at her enthusiasm, Lanna decided to humour the girl.

“Alright Monica, tell us what you know.”

The girl eagerly stood up and began.

“Ehem. Mommy said that a [Blessing] is the power a person gets when they are six. Mommy also said that people get them randomly but some influence can be had they were training for something specific,” the girl then got into a proud pose with her hands on her hips as she continued, ”Mom said I will get something with “Spirits” like her cool [spirit companion] because [blessings] pass down through the family.”

After the girl’s rather detailed response, Lanna turned to the boy.

“And you Taryn. What do you have to share with us?”

The boy began smoothly, his face blank once again.

“Old man Thomas said the same thing too. But he said it has less with training and more about intent and a clear goal,” the boy put his hand to his chin, seemingly trying to remember something before continuing,”Hmm. I think he said people who train just to be tougher, stronger or better at an element just gets what they were aiming for with better constitution for either durability, strength and elemental affinity. The more unique ones are gained randomly or with focus on a clear detail during training.”

“Good. You two both know quite a lot about the subject. I will just explain it again and add some things.”

Opening a book, Lanna continued.

“Firstly, [blessings] are, like Monica said, powers that manifests when a person turn six. It is not clear why it is like this, though many mages and scholars have made guesses. Secondly, they are random in what power a person can get. But they can still be influenced by training like you both said. Though Taryn’s point has not been clearly proven by anyone. Thirdly, they are passed down through family if the [blessing] is unique enough, though a small difference will always appear because no powers can be exactly the same.” At that point, Monica suddenly spoke.

“Eh? But I wanted spirit animals to play with like mom. No fair,” the child pouted, but beamed smugly as she continued, “but at least I’m right and he’s wrong.”

Having reproached Monica for the jab at the boy, Lanna went on with the lesson by teaching the children about the noble houses and their inherited [blessing]. Throughout the lesson, things played out like the beginning with Monica exuding energy everytime a question was raised and Taryn calm addition whenever he was asked to follow up. With the last details of the lesson delivered, Lanna lead the two children to the private training room and got back to her shift.

With the adult gone, Taryn sighed and relaxed his blank face and went to pick up his wooden sword in the corner. Before he could walked over, Monica addressed him.

“Um, why did you do that blank face thing while Miss Lanna was around? That’s weird.”

“Huh? What thing?” Taryn directed a confused look at the other child.

“You know, the way you keep your face blank when she is around,” Monica pointed at his face for emphasis.

“Er, You mean the serious face. Lanna has that when she was at the desk, so I did the same when she is around. Thomas sometimes have that face too. I think most adults do that, so I should do it too when they are around. It shows respect I think, the old man talked about it sometimes.”

“No, that’s not how you do it. Didn’t she complain about it?” The girl tilted her head.

“She didn’t. She called me a good student because I behaved and didn’t talk so much.”

“No way. Does that mean she thinks I’m bad if you are good. Urghhh.”

“Nah,” Taryn waved dismissively, “If she did, she would have told you like how she told you not to mock me. Now I need to get back to training.”

Saying so, the boy moved over to begin his stance revision. Monica muttered a “Rude” under her breath and sat down. As the minutes went by without anyone to talk to, Monica lost her patience and walked up to the wolf.

“Don’t you get bored doing this?”

“No.”

“Really, there’s got to be other things to do around here.”

“Yes.”

“Would you do them with me then?”

“No.”

“You’re no fun. You know that”

“Kay.”

“Urghhh. Can you stop with the sword swinging and answer me properly?”

The last provocation seemed to work as the boy put down his sword and turned to the girl. Only to smirk and say, “No,” before turning around and getting back to training.

Miffed at the blatant sarcasm, Monica went to the corner and grabbed the remaining wooden sword. Copying what she thought was a fighting stance, Monica gave a taunt,”This stuff is not so hard. I’ll show you some training,” and charged the boy.

Only to be put down in one hit to the shin. Yet Monica was not known for her cowardice in the face of pain. She picked up the sword and charged again. This time, instead of a quick take down, Taryn opted to use Monica as a means of training.

Imagining the charging blue buffoon as Thomas with his wooden sword, Taryn started to cycle through the stances and tried to only hit the wooden sword that Monica was swinging from weird angles that might not even hit him. This sort of training, bullying through Monica’s eyes, continued for about an hour before Monica eventually spent all of her energy and laid down panting.

Ignoring the girl once again, the boy set about doing his physical exercises with the background sound of indignant grumbling and threats of vengeance from the down elf.

Noon quickly came round after that and Lanna entered the room with some lunch ready for the children. Upon seeing the adult again, Monica rushed over, ready tell on her new friend.

“He was bullying me Miss Lanna,” the girl then started an exaggerated retelling of how the boy ignored her, used rude language against her and physically abused her. Obviously, the adult did not fall for Monica’s fabrications and asked the boy.

“Did you do all of that to her?”

“Hmm. I did ignore her. But I did not use any rude language. And she started the fight on her ow...” Taryn did not get to finish as Monica quickly yelled, “Liar,” while pointing at him.

Exasperated, Lanna sighed, clapped her hands and gestured to both.

“Now,now. I don’t know who was guilty and you two both blaming each other is going to disrupt the meal. So unless you both want to eat lunch in the corner, then I suggest you both eat your meals quietly. I’ll even skip the lessons after lunch so you two can work things out. Is that good with you two?”

A quick nod from both showed that the boring prospect of a time-out was something neither party desired.

Situation under control, Lanna handed the children their lunch and walked out of the room for her own in the dining hall. With the adult gone again, the children began to take their own lunch.

The meal was made up of a piece of roasted pork served on some mashed potatoes with a side of salad. Digging into his meal, the boy looked over to the girl to see her only taking the main plate and not the small bowl of salad. Under the assumption that the girl was still physically tired from earlier, he tried to help out and move the bowl over to her. His efforts were rewarded with a stuck out tongue and a dismissive “Nuh uh. No veggies,” from the elf. Confusion quickly overcoming his features, the boy asked.

“Eh? Why don’t you eat your veggies? It makes you stronger. Lanna and Thomas said so.”

“I don’t care. They taste bad when they are not cooked. Now get it away from me.”

“Fine. But I still think you should eat them. Training with you is more fun if you can fight back a bit.”

“Oh. Really? Then you will love it when I ask mom for my practice bow and arrow. Fufufu,” Monica laughed sinisterly.

“Cool. I always wanted to block arrows like the old man in his stories,” the boy’s eyes lit up as he continued, “Can you shoot me while I do my exercise too? That’ll help me with the pole thing Thomas makes me do.”

The sinister expression was then replaced with haughtiness as Monica spoke.

“Hmp. I won’t help you with your training, you ignored me back then. That’s not nice.”

“Oh come on. I didn’t knew you were this cool. I’ll eat your veggies for you if you want. Lanna is going to come in again and check after she finishes her lunch. She doesn’t like wasted food. Soooo.”

“Fineeee, you do that and we’re even.”

“Yay. thanks Monni.”

“Hey, it’s Monica. Don’t call me Monni.”

“Err. Why not? We’re friends right? And friends have nicknames. Thomas calls Lanna ‘Lan’. So I call you Monni.”

“Hmp. Then I’ll call you Tar. And if we are friends, no more ignoring me.”

“Maybe…”

“No, pinky promise. No more ignoring.”

Sighing, the boy put up his pinky to seal the deal. Promise made, the children returned to their meals. A while after finishing her meal, Monica tested the new pact of “no more ignoring”.

“Sooo. Why are you training anyways? Mom made me train because of my future. She said I’ll need it when I grow up.”

“I started to forget some bad things. And old Thomas said I needed to do it for a [blessing]. So we’re both doing it because of adults,” the boy then tilted his head and asked, “Are those good reasons to do this then?”

“Hmm. Not really. We should do things for ourselves. It’s more fun that way,” Monica paused for a bit to think before suddenly continuing, “Ah ha. I know, we’ll train to be great adventurers,” and getting interrupted by Taryn.

“But isn’t that what the adults want too?”

“Eh? Wait a minute. You’re right. Hmm? What do you think then?”

“We can still do that. Adults know things, it’s not bad to follow them.”

“Um. I guess we can still be adventurers like the adults want. It can still be fun. What do you think we will do when we’re adventurers.”

“I don’t know. Job requests?”

“I know that. I mean what else. We can go see the land, travel all around like my mom did. Kill monsters and capturing bandit. It’ll be so cool.”

As Monica was about to continue with her rant about the future, Lanna came in through the door.

“Alright, you two seems to be talking again. Now pick up your dishes and hand them to me.”

As she gathered the dishes, Lanna noticed something.

“You actually finished your vegetables Monica. I’m proud. Your mother mentioned you would have a problem. But I don’t see one here.”

Monica beamed at the praise and gave a hidden thumbs up to Taryn.

“Alright, like I said earlier, there will be no more lessons for today. Now get to your naps.”

The children quickly agreed and got into the mats set aside at the back. Seeing both settling in, Lanna took out the dishes and closed the door.

Afternoon arrived eventually and a sleepy Monica was woken up from her nap after Lanna shook her awake.

“Your mother is here to pick you up now.”

“Umm. i’m up, give me few seconds,” Monica then yawned and stretched before standing up completely.

“Good. Now be a bit quiet. Taryn is still sleeping,” Lanna pointed towards the slumbering boy. Guided by the adult’s finger, Monica also looked towards the boy. As she gazed at him, she thought to herself about how she finally got a friend after travelling for so long. How he was rather naive at times and sharp at others. And how she planned to pay him back for what he did in the morning. She might not bring it up with her mother. But monica was petty and Taryn would pay.

With those rather distorted thoughts, Monica left the prone form of the sleeping boy and tiptoed over to Lanna to be delivered to her mother.