"This is the best idea I’ve ever had," Oscar said with his usual impish grin. "I’m not so sure about this," Myles responded. The two young men had been joking about stealing money from the Mayor and his son for months, but to Myles’ surprise, Oscar wasn’t joking.

"If you get yourself hurt, I’m not bailing you out of your own stupidity," Althea added. Althea had been the voice of reason for a while now. Oscar had a habit of picking fights he couldn't win, and while Myles usually helped him, Althea was the one who could actually win. If the boys got in real trouble, Althea would try to get them out, but most of the time she just sat on the sidelines and berated Oscar for his stupidity and Myles for following him.

"The thing is, I won’t be getting a beating from him—" Oscar was quickly interrupted by Althea. "And why not? Need I remind you that Amon has his own Essence, and his dad has one too? Meanwhile, the three of us have none. I know the school sucks, but even you must know that 0 is less than 2. You’ll get yourself killed."

This part of Pallimustus rarely saw Essence users; there were maybe five essences, one belonging to Oscars own father, sprinkled throughout the entire town. The Mayor and his son happened to have two of them. Occasionally, adventurers would swing by, much to the marvel of the children in town.

Oscar looked down at the bright green grass they were sitting on before saying, "He’s not going to beat me up, because he’s going on a date." Myles and Althea looked shocked, as if he had said the craziest thing ever, because he had.

"With who? The only girl that likes him for more than his dad’s money is Alex, and she’s way too much of a coward to do anything about it."

"Oh yeah, it definitely wasn’t Alex that asked him out; it was you." Oscar said. Althea's whole body froze, like a cat about to pounce. As she silently boiled over in a seething rage, she took a deep breath and then just said, "No, I’m not gonna do that, not now, not ever. I wouldn’t even do it for an Essence."

“Don’t lie; if an Essence was on the line, we all know you’d do it. You are such a sucker for adventurers." Althea's face flushed red as she began to say, "They help people—"

"Only people that pay for it. If a giant monster came down here and destroyed the entire village, the only reason they’d come is if we paid them too," Oscar responded.

"I don't think you should push this, Oscar," Myles said. "Adventurers are good people; they need to make a living too. If they could do it for free, I think they would."

This arguing went back and forth for a few minutes before Oscar finally conceded. "I just want to do something fun before my New Water Ceremony." There was no silence before Myles and Althea began asking Oscar why he would do that. 

The New Water ceremony has existed in the Drascus countryside longer than anyone can remember, however in modern years, it’s been seen as more of a suggestion than a requirement. It involves a 16 year old boy, sometime before his 17th birthday, going out into the wilderness for a month; if they survive then they are given a hunting license. They are the only ones allowed to sell meat in the town. Most people don’t succeed and return home early, very few die. Even still the chance of death is never 0, and returning home early is a massive hit to one's ego.

“I want to- I want to be like my dad, he's a good man, he helps people, without needing them to be rich.” Oscar said. The others knew that he respected his father, but it was always a silent admiration, it was very rarely voiced. This was more important to him than they had realized before.

Althea took a deep breath, “I will talk to him, I can only get you 10 minutes maximum. You owe me half of everything you get. You two can split the other half however you want.” Oscar’s face lit up. 

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Later that night Oscar returned home, one day of scheming with his friends over. His dad wasn’t home from his hunt yet, however his mom was cooking in the kitchen, she noticed Oscar returning and said, “Your father is still on his trip, my guess is he’s either home later today or tomorrow morning.” Oscar gave a mhm sound, indicating he heard her, before stopping to gaze above the fireplace, looking at the Knife on the mantle, it was a simple knife made out of wood, stone and twine, it didn't even have a tang. He knew this object well, it was his father’s New Water Knife, the only thing you’re allowed to bring with you. All of them are made personally and each bear 3 runes along the blade

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The First Rune was to represent who you are Physically: they commonly meant anything from Speed, Strength or Flexibility.

The Second Rune Was Your greatest Mental Strength: Willpower, Mastery, and Cunning are all common runes.

The Third and Final is your Flaw, to ground you. Oscar never got a runic translation of his Fathers flaw. However, the other two were Balance and Patience, Oscar agreed with these descriptions of his father. Oscar was always curious but his father never allowed him to bring the knife anywhere to get it translated. 

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The sun had long since set and the moon and stars were out, as it was a cloudy night. It was exceptionally dark when Oscar's bedroom door swung open, his father burst in, and grabbed him by the arm. Without saying a word his father yanked him outside by his arm. His father had never hit him before, much to the envy of Miles and Althea, especially because of just how… energetic Oscar sometimes was. Until tonight that held true. His father dropped him to the ground outside of his house, and slapped him in the cheek. Hard. Oscar's own teeth turned traitor as the painful ringing rippled out from his gums. Oscar for once in his life bit his tongue, and could taste the instantly recognizable coppery taste of blood quickly fill his mouth. His father opened up the door to the storage cellar and then yelled for Oscar to go down into it, Oscar had finally fully woken up with the slap, and then quickly stumbled down the small flight of stairs. His father threw down an object, but it was too dark to tell what it was. With that Oscar’s Father Slammed the door to the cellar as Oscar’s eyes welled with tears. The slap stung, no doubt, but the pain of receiving it from his own father would linger far longer.

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Oscar's thoughts had begun racing. He didn't know where to start, and thus he was thinking of everything at the same time. Why would his father do that, what did he throw down, he wasn’t holding anything other than him, so where was he keeping it? This was not Oscar's first time in this cellar, it was never a punishment before, it was always just to retrieve something, and he knew where the lamp was.

He had read that in more magical parts of the world the lamps they used were magically powered, by putting in spirit coins, but this one was just an oil lamp. The shadows began dancing on the walls with the flickering of the flame. The first thing he did was to make himself comfortable, after finding something to wipe away his tears. He remembered that his family stored some loose fabric in the cellar that his mother used to patch or make clothing.  It wasn’t the most comfortable but at least he wouldn’t need to sleep on the hard wood of the basement floor. He didn’t know how long he was to wait in here but there was dried meat and water just in case.

His eyes began scanning the room from the nest he had made for himself in the corner of the room. As he was searching for anything that his father had thrown down, two objects caught his eye. He knew this cellar like the back of his hand well enough that he could find the lamp in the pitch darkness, and he didn't recognize either of them: a book and… his father's New Water Ritual knife? Oscar knew his dad’s knife—this one didn't have as many chips in the blade, its handle wasn’t worn down, and most importantly, it had 3 all new runes engraved in it. This wasn’t his father’s; it was Oscars. It was the knife he was going to bring to the New Water Ritual. Was this punishment somehow a test? But why would he be so rude if it was? Nevermind that, he looked at the book, It was bound in leather and had golden and red embellishments on it, the title of the book was “Guide to not Dying” Written by Oscar Wyvern. That was Oscar's name, he wrote this book apparently. He opened it up only to find that all the pages were blank. Each page was surrounded by a small golden border. This book looked very expensive.

He decided to think more about this in the morning. He turned off the oil lamp and then attempted to fall asleep in his nest, his mind still racing. It kept coming back to the same question: why? Eventually exhaustion won over and he managed to fall asleep.

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Oscar woke up the next day with an ache in his cheek, and a pit in his stomach. He could at least remedy one of those. He took the most appealing smelling jerky and ate as fast as he could. The jerky reminded him of winter. The snowy days he would spend having fun with his friends, or helping his parents with the daily chores. Oscar didn’t like winter all that much, but he could definitely see why people did.

While he was eating he saw the book on the ground open, and some black lines, writing he had missed.

He went over to inspect only to read: “Whatever you do, stay in the bunker until the sky returns to normal”. A chill ran down his spine, he knew that he had checked the first page before, and yet in easy to read black letters, it had a message for him. He wondered what that last part meant: Sky returns to normal? The sky wasn’t weird. That was when he realized he hadn't seen the sky since he had fallen asleep, he crawled up the short staircase and poked his eye through the crack in the two halves of the door to the cellar. 

The sky wasn't blue. It was red.

Oscar first heard it then, the screech of a monster, or possibly a human, it was hard to tell at this distance.