Kassius spent most of the day buying new clothes and books of his own with Fara and Meos. He enjoyed every bit of it because in all of his life he had never been able to get anything for himself. He also enjoyed the company of Fara, Meos, and his new little griffin friend, Ashe as he finally found people who weren’t disgusted by the mere sight of him.

“That was fun.” Kassius said in joy. Fara responded with a chuckle and Meos with a smile. “Kassius, how bout you and Ashe wait in the park while Mos and I tend to something for a bit?” Fara said kindly. Kassius looked at her confused, as he turned to look at Meos, he noticed he was also confused, which only confused Kassius even more. “It will be quick, and it’s a surprise.” Fara continued. Kassius nodded smiling and they headed off towards the park.

As they arrived at the park, Fara gave a reassuring nod at Kassius and gestured, telling him to go on, and he did. As Kassius went towards the open area of the park, Fara grabbed Meos’s arm and pulled him towards the other side of the street. Kassius found a bench by the trees and sat down. Ashe started to fly around, playing with Kassius, to pass the time. Kassius wasn’t bothered by how long Fara and Meos were taking with their “surprise”.

He had Ashe and all of the books about Gaia and its community to pass his time and he would not have asked for a better day than today. He let Ashe rest beside him, as he stroked his head gently. Kassius watched people, mostly kids his age and younger, play around and spend time at the park. He wanted to join them but he didn’t know how to talk to them without embarrassing himself. At this conclusion, he chose to sit, watch, and enjoy the fresh air.

Kassius watched a girl with white hair play, with younger children playing a game by the trees with smiles on their faces. The happiness was infectious, so much so that Kassius felt envious of them, having such a joyful childhood. Kassius then noticed a kid, his age, approaching the group. A fair-skinned boy with shiny groomed blonde hair and white and gold attire, like a prince from a fairy-tale. The boy walked as if he were royalty, elegant and dignified, however, the aura coming off him was nothing pleasant. He watched as the boy came close to the group, seemingly laughing at them, a sight all too familiar to Kassius after being bullied for most of his life.

The boy then grabbed the little girl on her arm, and without thinking, Kassius stood up and headed for the scene, with Ashe following. “Hey! Let her go!” Kassius yelled as he was meters away from the scene. The boy and the little girl looked at him startled at the strange boy getting closer to them. The boy smirked and said “Who are you to command me?” raising his brow.

Kassius stopped in front of the two and grabbed the boy’s hand. “A person with enough dignity to be decent apparently,” Kassius remarked against the boy. Ashe, flying beside Kassius, screeched at the boy, the boy responded with a laugh. “Dignity? You defend this….this filthy witch…. And I have no dignity?” the boy said sarcastically.

“And clearly you don’t know your place.” the boy said as he released the girl’s hand and began to stare at Kassius with narrow eyes, Kassius stared back. Both boys put up a strong front, waiting for the other to back away, but none would. “Whatever, I won’t bother with lowly filth. I just needed to make you know your places.” The boy eyed Kassius and the little girl.

“Better than you apparently,” Kassius remarked. The boy laughed. “Do you have any idea who I am?” the boy asked in disbelief. “I am the son of the High Priest of the Citadel, Adonis Kaiser.” the boy said, puffing out his chest proudly. Kassius didn’t know what that meant so he stood his ground and maintained his narrowed stare. “Oooh I’m scared, someone help me.” Kassius jokingly said. The boy’s brow twitched and his face became slightly stiffer at annoyance.

“Maybe I should educate you since you are clearly lacking in intelligence.” the boy said, clenching his fist. “Maybe I should teach you how to be decent,” Kassius said, clenching his fist as well and Ashe in a pouncing position beside Kassius’s feet.

The boys stood still in silence, angrily looking at one another. Before Kassius could pull back his fist, the girl grabbed his hand to prevent him from lifting it. He looked at the girl and she shook her head with a sad face. He understood what she meant, what he didn’t understand was why, why didn’t she feel as angry as Kassius was at the boy.

He then heard a loud authoritative voice from nearby saying “Adonis, come here.”. They all looked up and saw a man with blonde hair, the same style as the boy, and wearing white and gold robes. “Coming, father.” the boy lost his initial arrogance and became an obedient son.

He turned to his father but gave a quick glare at Kassius and the girl behind him. “You’re dead, next we meet.” the boy said and he walked off. Kassius felt his blood boil with rage, his arrogance angered him so much that his clenched fist felt like it was bruising.

“Thanks.” a soft gentle voice said from behind Kassius. Kassius turned and saw the little girl a little flustered looking down at the ground avoiding Kassius’s face. “It’s no big deal,” Kassius said, smirking and chuckling. “I just did what anyone would have done,” Kassius said, smiling and feeling a little hot in the head.

Kassius then noticed the other hiding behind the bushes and trees just a few paces far from him. “Hey, it’s alright.” He said gently, approaching the younger kids gently but the kids recoiled as he approached. “Let me do it.” the girl said to Kassius as she gestured to him to stay and approached the kids. She talked to them and guided them towards Kassius, but they still hid behind her.

“See? Won’t you say thank you to the nice boy?” the girl said kindly to the kids. Kassius knelt down to meet their eyes and smiled. This appeared to calm them down and Ashe approached them happily allowing them to pet him.

Kassius let out a sigh of relief as he thought he would be looked at as another monster, he was glad for the help of Ashe and the girl. “Why was that guy such an a–, I mean jerk, to you?” Kassius asked the girl. “You mean you don’t know?” the girl asked.

Before he could answer he heard his name from nearby, he turned to see Fara and Meos waving at him from the bench where he sat. He waved back at them and shouted, “Just a sec.” and turned back to the girl. When he turned around the girl and the other children had already gone over to a woman. She guided them out of the park and towards the opposite side of the park. Kassius walked over to Fara and Meos, with Ashe following close behind him.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Making new friends?” Fara asked happily. “Sort of,” Kassius said flustered. “Before I forget Kassius, here,” Fara said as she brought out something from behind her. She pulled out what looks like a handle of some sort. “What’s that?” Kassius asked. “It’s something that’ll be useful from here on,” Fara said. Kassius remained confused.

“It is a device that will protect you using the magic in you.” Meos explained. Kassius looked at the handle and saw a transparent blade at top of the handle.

Kassius looked in awe as the silver blade extended, seemingly at his command; he didn’t know what to say after receiving such a gift, but he simply looked at Fara and Meos with a happy and thankful expression. “Happy Birthday, Kassius.” They both said happily.

As the day ended Kassius, Fara and Meos, left for the entrance they came in. Fara called for Horacion and the archway appeared. The walk back to the house was nothing like the eventful day he had in Eden. Fara kept Ashe in a cage and covered it with a cloth sheet. Kassius did his best to calm Ashe to prevent him from making a lot of noise and accidentally taking off the sheet, much to Ashe’s dislike.

He would rattle the cage and make noises so loud that it caught glimpses from some people as they walked through the streets of New York, thankfully no one asked questions, and they reached the house without any trouble.

It was the most beautiful night of snow, Christmas was in full blow as the decorations showed and the lights glimmered along the road. The streets are filled with the sounds of Christmas songs and celebrations in each house. While the celebrations were in full swing, there were some houses that stayed dim but still had a little celebration. Fara had gathered a lot of ingredients to prepare their own Christmas feast and spent most of the day preparing, along with her brother in the small kitchen. Kassius sat in a chair with Ashe by his side reading one of the books that he had bought on his first day they went to, titled, “Magnificent Creatures”.

The book had information about the numerous creatures of the world of Gaia, all of those that were familiar to him were those names that came up from the books he had read, such as Mermaids, Chimeras, and Unicorns. He was also fascinated to read about creatures from other countries, such as Pegasi and the Kelpie. He even tried to read up on Griffins but found little information about them in the book. “Guess they really are a rare sight.” thought Kassius, disappointed.

“Dinner’s ready,” Fara yelled and Kassius closed his book and made his way to the kitchen. He saw the small table filled with delicious food from a big full turkey, to desserts like ice cream and pudding. They all sat down and enjoyed their small but delicious Christmas dinner.

“Fara? Can I ask you something?” Kassius said as he put pieces of chicken and some mashed potatoes on his plate. Fara looked at him in response. “I met this boy who was bullying a girl for no reason,” Kassius explained. Fara curled her brow along with her brother.

“The boy said his name was Adonis Kaiser or something.” Kassius continued, and before he could finish, Fara and her brother straightened their faces making a serious expression.

“Do you know who he is?” Kassius asked, but he already knew the answer. He waited for them to answer quietly, careful not to press the subject too hard as they looked affected by the name.

“How much do you know about Gaia?” Meos asked, breaking the silence. “Not much, just a little bit of the history,” Kassius answered, he wondered what history could have to do with it.

“That saves us a bit of explanation at least,” said Fara, Kassius looked at them confused. “You know, the Six Lords of Gaia then do you?” Meos asked, slightly surprised at the fact, Kassius nodded in response. Meos then took a deep breath and began to explain.

"During the war, the people of Gaia had to choose a side, and so, with six entities, there were six people." Meos started. "While the Hekcim never had a single entity considered a lord, the first of their kind were given the honor, or so the history tells us."

"Due to that division, there was much animosity among the people of Gaia. Each race believed themselves superior, some even till this day." Meos stopped for a moment to take a breath. "The Vidacaris, those of Beast blood have been ridiculed for their animal features, the Nemasians for their gills and being treated as second-class." Meos took another deep breath, much deeper than before as if trying to hold something back.

"The worst of it, however, were the differences between Archanians and Farathore, the people of the Archan Knight and Priest of the Abyss." Fara continued, as Kassius turned toward Fara. "The Archanians have always been the image of perfect and pristine, the twats." Fara said disgustedly. "No one believes themselves as highly as they do."

"They believe that with their pure and holy culture, they have the right to dictate how we live and look down on those who have a piece of mind to tell'em off." Fara said as she clenched her fist harder and harder as she described the Archanians.

Meos patted his sister on the back and continued her explanation." The Archanians looked down on all the raises but none more so than the Farathore, as they are the people of the Priest of the Abyss." Kassius lost his perfect image of Gaia and looked at Meos and Fara in disbelief.

"But the girl didn't look evil or dark, so how--" Kassius said before being interrupted by Meos. "It is not so much the individual Kassius, rather the people as a whole." Meos said as calmly as he could.

"While not all Farathore are evil, there are those that have lived up to the example of the Priest, and with that image…" Meos stopped, but Kassius understood what he meant.

Kassius found his fist clenched firmly and took a deep breath to calm down and released his clenched fist, he then noticed Fara still looking solemn. The frustrated look on her face made Kassius regret the decision to ask his question.

"Well that's enough doom and gloom, shall we dig in?" Meos said, trying to lighten the room. Fara relaxed her expression a little bit, which relaxed Kassius.

"So what is this place I have to go to?" Kassius asked, trying his best to change the subject. "It's a great place to learn all you need to know about Gaia," Fara said, glee slowly coming back to her face.

"It's a sort of school where kids of all kinds learn together." "It's a whole lot of fun you'll see," Fara said, smiling at Kassius. Kassius felt excited and scared knowing that he'll be able to go to a school for the first time.

On one hand, he is excited to be in a place where he is not the freak of nature that people have said he was all his life, on the other he wouldn't know how to interact with anyone as he's only been to Eden a couple of times. "You said before I could live in that place. Can you live in a school?" Kassius asked. "Not in most schools, no." Fara replied. "That's one of the reasons why this school is special, but you'll see soon enough when we take you there next month." Fara said as she gestured for Kassius to eat up, and he did so.

The rest of the night was relatively happy and peaceful. Kassius remained curious about Gaia. While his image of Gaia had been broken, he still thought that the world was amazing, thinking about Ashe and everything he had seen during his first time in Eden.

The thought always came back to him, the thought that there was such conflict between the people of Gaia. His mind drifted off to Adonis and his smug and arrogant aura that angered Kassius and he thought about the girl he met and wondered how she could be bad enough for such treatment. All in all, Kassius was eager to find out more about the world, whether it be bad or good.