'That actually wasn't that bad. Well done Essam. Kkele's still definitely going to want to my talk ears off with her own lecture though, I'm sure', Mmanuell finishes the last of those jam sandwiches he made, as well as the entire jar whose contents he spread upon them, and folds the leaflet back up whilst licking his fingers.

Ssamuell smiles, 'Oh, absolutely. But at least now you only have to pretend to listen. You wanna go over to hers now and show her the news?'

'She's not in, I already knocked. Probably out looking for samples.'

'Ah, she's probably at Oldport by now then, Let's go find her then-'

'Yeah, off you too go then!', Nneena interrupts, 'But be careful(!) Frost Wyverns make easy pickings out of children who don't know how to listen and can't keep an ear out for them'. She ruffles their hair and herds them towards the already opened front door with low-Rolling clouds of unaltered Steam Magic.

'Speaking of hard'a'hearin...Mmanuell?'

'Yes, Aunty?'

'What happened to "leave some of that food for your parents"?'

Mmanuell's...selective memory seems to have been at play, as his eyes widen a little and he sarcastically turns his hands up upon remembering Nneena telling him not to eat all the jam he was given.

'...No idea?'

'Yeah, well you better remember before you come back in here, get out my house.' Nneena slams the front door in their faces, betraying the gleam on her face as she did so.

Ssamuell glares at Mmanuell, who pouts back, licking the jam off of his lips. 'Couldn't help it man, shit was good.'

Ridiculous, Ssamuell rolls his eyes and starts flying down the road, 'Just give mum some more of uncle Ttala's stuff and she'll forget by tomorrow. Let's get going.'

Ssamuell and Mmanuell float and walk, respectively, down the cul-de-sac entrance and onto the road that bends right and veers around the forest they intend to venture into. Mmanuell stops at the edge of the pavement and turns to Sam, the apotheosis of a fresh idea made plain on his face.

'Sam.'

'Yeah?'

'Throw me.'

'No, I just woke up.'

'Come on, man.'

'I'm half awake, if I throw you into a tree and you buss your head, don't blame me.'

'Hmph, suit yourself...alright, what about a "June 8th"?'

Oh? Now that, at least, is much more in line with what Ssamuell has the energy to put up with. Mmanuell complains too much when he's being thrown.

Ssamuell yawns and stretches over the cloud of Steam Magic he was splayed out on top of. 'Fineee, because it's your Ascentday.'

The snow around their feet is blown aside as Ssamuell flits upwards a few meters into the air, leaning over his cloud and letting a pillar of Flow pour forth from his afro. The majority of Ssamuell's Gates are in his hair so he must not be too hasty to do Transmutation, lest he accidentally chop 6 years of growth off his head.

He forms it into a large, saggy ball of plain, crystal clear Water Magic, held together by the tremendous amount of Water Tension Ssamuell applied to it.

'Give that a smack, Mmanuell.'

Mmanuell obliges and gives the blob a firm slap, and his hand ricochets around to the other side of his body, 'Wooh, yeah that's bouncy enough for me. Am I good to jump?'

'Not yet, let me readjust the angle...', Ssamuell fixes himself upright and concentrates, moreso on ensuring that Mmanuell will be flung in the correct direction and less on controlling his Magic to do so. At his behest, the bean-shaped lump of Water Magic rolls slightly to the left and picks itself up a little; this should land Mmanuell a few dozen meters from their favourite clearing in Oldport Glades, whilst still keeping him low enough to evade Kkele's attention. 'Alright, you're good to go, bro. I will walk.'

'Sure thing, Sam. Alright, I'll catch you in a minute.'

'Remember, you need a 40 meter leap to land where I want you to.'

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'Like I would forget.'

As if Mmanuell needed reminding in the first place. He has a scarily accurate memory of every single plan, plot, scheme, and prank they've pulled as a group since they were six years old. "June 8th 2013" was a very funny one in particular. What was then the current mayor of the neighboring "civilised" city of Kingston made a visit to Wrackdon Village on what was coincidentally the same day Ssamuell mastered a few hard-to-alter physical properties of his Elements. So they did what they did best- devised an impromptu scheme to use Water Magic with Surface Tension so high it bounces as a trampoline and launch Mmanuell right at the man and steal his wig.

It worked without a hitch and triggered a spiraling series of unfortunate incidents that lead to the man's eventual retirement. Served him right for looking at Kkele funny, if you ask Ssamuell.

Regardless, in a splitting image to that day Mmanuell leaps forty meters exactly in a single bound. The bubble of tense liquid heavily deforms as Mmanuell excitedly crashes into it- but, just as drastically, it instantly regains its original shape and launches him into the forestry ahead at a scarily tremendous pace.

'SEE YA!', Mmanuell salutes as he cheers, does a little frontflip, and disappears beneath the evergreen.

How nice it must be to only care for the world's woes when you see fit. But what does Ssamuell know, he's only 15. With a chuckle beyond his age, Ssamuell readjusts his glasses and, with but a single wave, the house-sized mound of Water Magic begins to dissolves into Flow- wisps of blue smoke glide over the springtime snow as southbound, sun-kissed winds glow with the luster of the Azure, their crisp coldness biting Ssamuell's cheeks as he leisurely follows in the direction he sent Mmanuell flying. He almost finds it hard to believe himself when he says he prefers the indoors.

Upon floating up to the monument he found a few years ago and relocated to the forest entrance Kkele carved out, Ssamuell gave it a little pat and continued making his way through the snow dusted trees and frozen streams of the "backyard" any child would dream of.

Ah. Good, old, Oldport Glades. Got their name because some guys found ship equipment from Era III in some excavation. "Evidence that Cryotia used to have much more water flowing through it than it does now" it suggests. It's a great place though. It's massive and nobody ever travels here, over half of the trees are Aurora Pines which makes it an absolute spectacle at night, and it contains a lot of clearings and grottoes thanks to those bygone excavation efforts. Loads of places to bide the time in peace. It's one of our favourite places to hang ou-

Twenty minutes into a pleasant morning cruise as he may be, Ssamuell remains fully attentive to his surroundings- he cuts his monologue short and freezes in anticipation upon noticing an anomaly.

There's a figure ahead, someone who shouldn't be here. Through and past a few tall shrubs he intended to glide right on over. Were it either of his two friends they would not have noticed, but that is neither here nor there. The entire silhouette cannot be made out from this distance, but...male, Ssamuell thinks. It's definitely not Kkele, she isn't that tall.

At his command, Ssamuell's signature cloud of Steam Magic: a "Nimbus", he likes to call it, shifts hues from its default rainy grey to a swirling mix between death-white and glassy translucence. The illusion is not wholly foolproof, only wavering when Ssamuell makes sudden movements, nor is it anywhere near as good as his mother's (Who is probably one of the few people alive who have perfect invisibility), but this technique has served Ssamuell well since he was three years old and for all practical intents and purposes it is the genuine article.

I'd much prefer to shoo them away from here, but what needs doing needs doing. Now, let's get a better look at who this is...

Ssamuell withdraws his exposed head back into his Nimbus, morphing it into a fully enveloping orb as he douses himself in pellucid mirage. He slowly ascends over the frosted briar patch to get a better look at what could potentially be an opponent of unknown strength.

But...upon further inspection of the mystery figure, it has been made known to Ssamuell that it...actually is Mmanuell? He has his back turned towards Ssamuell and is standing on one leg, so its no small wonder he couldn't see such a telling feature as Mmanuell's pompadour. Only a few feet away from the crater of snow he must have landed in, frozen in his tracks like he got caught sneaking downstairs for food at 3am.

'M- Mmanuell? What the hell are you doing you should be nowhere near here by-', Ssamuell attempts to ask, but doesn't even get the entire sentence out before Mmanuell snaps his gaze around and shakes his head in the most "we are fucked" way non-verbal communication can convey.

Ah, he landed on a wyvern den. And, since I haven't touched the ground, we're probably surrounded. They cannot afford to make any more noise, so the boys communicate using the "Direct and Effective Signal System", a number-based sign language they came up with a few years ago.

Ssamuell gives Mmanuell a general time-check signal, "One, Two, Six", to which he replies "Two Zero"- that's twenty minutes.

'Since you landed?!', Essam mouths at him in shock.

Mmanuell nods, and signals back "Three, Four, One, Five, Two", which represents an immediate danger and a guarantee of reinforcements, then points at the snow beneath him. He is stood upon a dry tree branch, primed to snap at a moment's notice. "Eight, One." "One, One, One." "Two, One, Three"

Gotcha, Ssamuell nods. He releases Flow from the Gates on his hands and gets to moulding it into chains of glowing Steam Magic. He also figures Mmanuell might want something more than his bare hands to deal with this situation, and fashions a small dagger out of Water Magic. Ssamuell quickly levitates it into Mmanuell's palm, who hasn't taken his eyes off of a conspicuous groove behind a nearby tree.

Ssamuell readies himself as Mmanuell counts down from four. He managed to get two five-foot chains made; only enough to restrain one Wyvern at a time, but Mmanuell's never had trouble fighting multiple Wyverns at once.

Three…

The sun breaks through the swaying foliage, illuminating Ssamuell's hazel eyes with patient ardour as he deactivates the invisibility on his Nimbus and shrinks it down to cloud-size.

Two…

Ssamuell floats directly above Mmanuell and spuds him before positioning his Steam Magic chains to float at his sides. It's no wonder Frost Wyverns are such successful hunters. Ssamuell can see the entirety of what will become their small battlefield...yet the only presence his eyes only register is his best friends.

No matter, let's see what's up, 'Do it, Mmanuell.'

-SNAP-