“I shall be the first one to go beyond the Wall Mountains and become an Immortal!” an older man was screaming as he stood in the middle of the town’s square.

I stared in fascination at man’s outburst. He wore a silly pair of wings on his arms, which added to his appearance of a crazy person with his disheveled gray hair and bushy mustache of the same color.

“What the—with that?” a man asked, pointing at the wings on the old man.

“Hohoho,” the old man replied with an impressed expression on his face, “I can see that there’s someone with a keen eye!” he lifted his arms, showcasing the makeshift wings made of wood and cloth, “With these wings, I shall be able to use my wind magic to lift myself up higher than any other person! And fly as high as any bird!”

I looked around at the people that had gathered. Most people were whispering among themselves. I didn’t quite understand what the fuss was about, but I couldn’t let all these people get in the way. I had to see with my own eyes how this man planned to get over the Wall Mountains!

As I started pushing my way through the crowd, someone suddenly pulled me by the arm.

“Now, where do you think you’re going, young man?” a feminine voice behind me asked.

I slowly turned to look behind me. It was the orphanage director! How did she even find me here?! Still… “I-I-I’m just—I mean I wanted to—like—”

“No, sir! You are supposed to be in classes with the other children! Now, come on, you’re still too young to even be thinking about going over the Wall Mountains,” she sternly told me.

“But Mister Williker has these wings and he said that he can fly over the mountain like a bird! And there’s all these people and I think that—”

“Mister Williker is a crazy man. He might be a gifted mage in wind magic, but that doesn’t mean that he will be able to climb over the mountain,” the old director said to me, pulling me back to the orphanage as she did. “You have to prepare yourself. There isn’t much time before your magic awakens—if it does at all—so you have to be able to make a living for yourself no matter what happens. So…”

I looked up at the old director’s stern expression. “So…?”

“Get to studying!” she loudly declared, stunning me in my spot. I tried to run away right after, but the ground suddenly started to shift and pull me back behind the old director.

“But that’s so boring! I could learn more from this!” I protested, pulling on my arm and trying to run away.

“You’ll learn more from this, when you know more. No buts!” the old director firmly replied, but I wasn’t going to give up easily!

* * *

I was grumpily sitting by my chair in the orphanage classroom. The old director was talking, but I couldn’t help but frown and glare in her direction. I can’t believe she didn’t let me see how Mister Williker was going to fly over the mountains. Those wings were just like the ones that birds use to fly. So he can definitely fly over the mountains. Especially with the power that he has!

The old director turned to look at me, and I quickly turned to look out the window. I wasn’t glaring at her, I’m sure of it. Well, I’m sure she didn’t notice. I started whistling as I looked up at the mountains. I wasn’t glaring at her, it was someone else.

“Cole,” the old director called out, but I kept staring out the window. I’m sure she wasn’t calling me. “Cole!” she shouted this time. It seems that the other kid named Cole isn’t answering her.

A small dirt rock suddenly fell on my head, startling me as I held on to the top of my head and turned to look at the stern expression on the old director. “Why!?”

There were a couple more rocks floating over her hand as she looked down at me. “You’re the only Cole in this classroom. So don’t ignore me when I’m calling your name!”

“Hnngg!” I grumbled, glaring back at her. The other kids laughed when she pointed that out. But it’s not my fault, I don’t really know any of the kids here, save for—

“And stop glaring at me!” she said, letting the rocks fall down and pointing at the blackboard behind her, “Now, would you be so kind as to solve this math problem?”

I looked behind her at whatever was written there. I didn’t quite understand what was going on here. I had been so busy thinking about what Mister Williker was showing before, that I completely missed the class. Still, I tried my best, narrowing my eyes and looking at the problem. Maybe if I act like this, she’ll think that I’m thinking about it.

“Four,” the older boy sitting next to me whispered, hiding his face so that the old director wouldn’t notice.

“Four!” I exclaimed as soon as he gave me the answer.

The old director lifted her eyebrows at my answer. It seems like she was impressed. “The Crown Princess of our kingdom is ‘four’, Mister Cole?”

“Huh?” I exclaimed, turning to look at the other kids. They all burst out in laughter, especially the one sitting next to me. I glared at him and then back at the old director. “You said it was a math problem!”

“I can say whatever I want, but if you’re not paying attention, you’ll never get things right. Now pay attention!” she responded, causing me to pout and grunt as I looked away.

The kid that gave me that wrong answer was smirking at me, but when I glared at him, he quickly turned to look at the old director again. I ignored him and decided to look at someone else: a cute girl that was sitting somewhere at the front. She had been giggling so far, but lucky for me, she couldn’t see me from there. Her name was Salya, and she was the only one I cared about in this place.

She turned to look back. Our eyes caught each other for a brief moment and I felt my face flush. I turned away, trying to play it cool by looking out the window. However, I couldn’t resist the urge to sneak a glance back at her. She was smiling at me, but she quickly turned her attention back to the teacher.

“Mister Cole!” the old director shouted at me again.

I quickly straightened myself on the old chair and looked up at her with a nervous expression. “Yes, ma’am!”

She glared at me for a second before her expression turned to one of defeat as she placed a hand on the side of her temple. “You have to pay attention. These things will be important for you to know one day.”

“Yes… yes…” I dismissively responded, resting my body again on the chair. I decided to avoid getting yelled at again, so I started paying a little bit more attention to the old director.

“So, as I was saying: the Crown Princess’ name is Katherine Das Bondoba. She’s the first child of the queen, and is around the same age as you children,” she said, writing the name on the blackboard.

The kid sitting next to me raised his hand and the old director pointed at him to let him speak. “Oh! Does that mean that maybe one day we could meet her and I could become a prince if I marry her?”

The old director chuckled, and I also smirked at this fool. How could he possibly want to marry some random princess when Salya was here? However, the old director stopped laughing after a second and shook her head. “The princess is expected to lead the country when the Queen is no longer able to. For that reason, they’ll find her a suitable partner among the many noble houses that support the Crown. It is highly unlikely that she’ll ever leave the palace to come here.”

The kid that asked the question raised his hand again. “But what if I was an Immortal?!”

“An Immortal?” the old director asked with a slight tilt of her head, and I as well turned to look with curiosity at this kid.

He nodded his head vigorously. “Yes! Mister Williker said that if you can cross over the Wall Mountains, you’ll become an Immortal! Would the princess marry me if I were one?”

The girls in the classroom laughed, while the boys, myself included, looked excitedly at what the old director would say. But she just shook her head. “We don’t know what lies behind the Wall Mountains. There could be riches, there could be other people, there could be monsters, there could even be an ocean of uncharted waters like the one beyond the west coasts, or… nothing at all. Nobody knows if you will become an Immortal if you’re able to cross them,” she said, turning to look out the window at the very tall mountains. “Still, you should know but now that Williker is a crazy person, so don’t take anything he says as fact.”

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“But there’s a possibility?” the kid continued.

“Perhaps,” the old director replied with a shrug, causing the boys to become excited. “But right now you need to learn other important things, so let's put that aside and continue with our lessons.”

The kids settled down, and we continued with our lessons, with me trying my best to keep my eyes on the old director to avoid getting yelled at.

* * *

“Okay! Class dismissed. Don’t forget to pick up your things and be ready for dinner,” the old director called out, waking me out of my sleep.

I looked around confused, and realized that the class was now over as the other children were already leaving, and that I was the last one in the classroom. I picked up the few pieces of paper and the charcoal I use to doodle things with, and quickly left the place, avoiding the stern look of the old director as I did.

Once outside the classroom, I noticed that the kid that was next to me was happily chatting with Salya. How could he!? And what’s worse… she’s laughing and playing along with him! I can’t allow this to happen, I have to make sure she focuses on me. And so I took a deep breath and made my way to them.

“H-h-hey S-s-salya,” I said, ruining my speech in the process, “Is it okay if-if-if we talked for a moment b-behind the classroom?”

The boy looked at me with a confused expression, perfect for a loser. But her friends were covering her mouth and giggling as they looked at me. Not that it mattered, since the only one that matters is Salya, who was looking at me with a smile.

She hummed for a moment before nodding. “Okay! I’ll see you in a bit!”

Success! I clenched my hands in excitement and smiled brightly at her great response. “I-I’ll be waiting!”

Having said that, I quickly turned around and headed to the spot where we had agreed to meet. I was going to tell her to marry me before that other stupid kid got ahead of himself. That will show him, and I’ll be the happiest person ever. My life is now complete!

* * *

“I’m sorry… I can’t…” she said to me after I asked her to marry me.

I looked at her with teary eyes. I didn’t understand why she would say no to me. “Why… can’t you?”

“Because…” she trailed off, her eyes drifting from one place to another, eventually settling somewhere behind me. “Because…! My heart can only go to an Immortal!”

“An Immortal?” I asked, not quite understanding what she meant.

“Yes! Didn’t you hear what Miss Deneveer said? The Crown Princess would only marry an Immortal, and I am the same,” she said with conviction while nodding.

“Then… If I were an Immortal… would you marry me?” I warily asked, now having a somewhat vague understanding of what she meant.

“Yes! But only if you’re an Immortal, so… that’s it!” she responded to me, quickly turning on her heels and running in the direction she had come from.

“An Immortal…” I pondered to myself as I thought about how I would ever achieve that.

Then it hit me, I remembered what Mister Williker was saying earlier today. Something like… ‘I shall reach beyond the Wall Mountains and become an Immortal’. That’s it! If I cross over the Wall Mountains and become an Immortal then I’ll be able to marry Salya!

I turned around and looked over the impossibly high mountains, its peaks constantly covered by deep clouds, so high and so dense that nobody had ever even seen the top. No matter how much it rains, how sunny the day is, these clouds never go away. Nobody can see the top of these mountains.

Time to hatch a plan to get over them. I looked to the west, where the ocean is supposed to be. I could try to get to the other side by going on a boat… but… from the rumors in town and what the old director has said, after a few short hours of sailings, the ocean turns into a terrible storm, where the waves are so tall that even the biggest boats not only get turned over, but they get pushed all the way to the rocks, and that not even the most powerful water mages can survive. So that’s a no go.

I looked over to the east. Maybe I could walk around them… but nobody has ever reached the end of the Wall Mountains, and it could take me too many years to become an Immortal if I try. Salya would wait for me for as long as it takes, but it’s not fair to make her wait that long.

And so… the only possibility is… to fly over them like Mister Williker said! But my twelfth birthday is still a few weeks away and I don’t know what kind of magic I’ll get—if I get any, as Miss Deneveer said.

But I know it in my soul! I’ll get Wind Magic and fly over the Wall Mountains!

* * *

A few weeks later, it was finally my birthday. I’ve never really cared about them since in this orphanage we don’t have a lot to celebrate anyone’s birthday. At most just a few words, or congratulations would be shared, but generally we didn’t say anything about it. That’s because being a year older means that it’s less likely that someone’s going to adopt you or take care of you, and that you’ll have to find what to do with your life once you turn eighteen.

But that’s not something for me to care about right now. On this day I’ll get my wind magic, go after Mister Williker and fly over the Wall Mountains with his wings! And so, I kicked aside the old rag we use as a blanket over the straw bed and ran outside, hoping to see if my magic had awakened as it is supposed to.

It was still early in the morning, but there was some sunlight. The other kids hadn’t woken up yet, and I think that the old director was still sleeping—she’s old after all. Perfect for me to test out my abilities without anyone getting in the way.

I quietly moved outside of the orphanage, standing in the grassy field by the building. I could see from here the mountains, and I could feel myself getting excited at the idea of becoming an Immortal once I flew over them. However… I didn’t feel anything different within me. Perhaps I should meditate or something like that?

I closed my eyes and focused on whatever. Some of the hero stories that the old director got for us talk about how they ‘focus on their inner selves’, so maybe I should do that. And so I did, trying to find that something ‘self’.

Time was passing but nothing was changing. I could feel the cold of the morning, the heat of the sun, and the need to pee. I opened my eyes and looked ahead with a frown. Maybe I should just try to do as the other mages do. I took a deep breath and then a strong step forward.

“Ha!” I shouted, trying to manifest my wind magic as I pushed my open palm forward.

Nothing happened. I tried it a couple more times, with fists, with fingers, even with kicks and flapping my arms like a bird would, thinking about the wood and cloth wings that Mister Williker has, but nothing happened.

“What are you even doing, young man,” the voice of the old director coming from behind me startled me, causing me to jump and nearly pee myself as I turned to see her standing some distance away from me.

“Miss Deneveer!” I shouted in response, moving aside the few blond hair locks that had gotten in my eyes from my slightly longer hair. “I-I was just…”

“Mhm?” she asked, her arms crossed under her chest as she carried a questioning expression on her face.

“I was just trying to test my wind magic…” I confessed, feeling my face flush and looking away to not see her face.

“Oh, hoho,” she laughed, uncrossing her arms and taking a few steps forward in the grass. “You wouldn’t just wake up with your magic first thing in the morning. Don’t you remember how it was for the other kids in the orphanage?”

I frowned and looked at the grass, tilting my head to the side. “I don’t know… I don’t talk to anyone here.”

She sighed and shook her head. “It would be good to get along with the other kids,” she said, approaching even closer to me. “Come on, let's get some breakfast. You should have something to eat.”

I pouted for a moment but eventually nodded and started walking after her. “Maybe I just didn’t awaken magic?” I asked on the brink of tears.

But the old director just laughed as she had done before. “No, no, it could happen at any time of the day, so it’s better to be prepared.”

I hummed for a moment, looking at the wood floor as we went deeper into the orphanage. “Okay…”

I suddenly stopped after a couple of steps, I could feel something inside of me. The old director also noticed that I had stopped as she turned to look behind. “Is something wrong?”

“I have to pee,” I said, turning around and looking for a place to relieve myself, leaving behind a flabbergasted director.

“Do come to the kitchen once you’re done!” she shouted as I was getting further away.

* * *

The day went by without anything actually happening to me. No magic, no changes, nothing. I didn’t even get to see Salya today! And so I looked at the few other more grown up kids that usually helped around the orphanage as I sat down in the same grass I had been standing on in the morning.

One slightly older girl was using her water magic to carry water into the house. Another boy was using fire to light a campfire, and another boy was drying his clothes after washing them with the water of the girl.

I sighed and looked down, defeated, at the ground below me. It seemed like I was one of the few fellows that never got any magic in them. But that wasn’t so rare, since most people don’t awaken any magic, or if they do, it’s usually so weak that they never use it for anything other than mundane things, like how a few of the other kids did here.

I looked up at the Wall Mountains again. There had to be a way to get over them! But how… I wondered and laid myself on the grass, spreading my arms to the side and feeling the blades of grass touching my skin. I looked up at the clear skies of the setting sun with the orange hue of the clouds reflecting its light.

I closed my eyes and let myself feel the ground, the wind and the cold that was coming with the night. I listened to the sounds of nature now that the other kids were gone.

A few minutes later, the ground started violently rumbling beneath me. I tried to open my eyes and stand up to see what was happening, but I couldn’t move my body or even open my eyes. The rumbling disappeared shortly after, but I could no longer feel the ground or the grass. Instead, strong gusts of wind lifted my body in the air, swirling all around me.

“Cole!” I heard the older voice of the director calling out to me, but I still couldn’t move. “It’s okay,” she said now that she was closer to me.

A few minutes later I gently fell to the ground again, and I could finally open my eyes. Slowly, I started moving my body until I was sitting on the grass. I turned to look at the old director, who was looking back at me.

She was the only one that was here, it seemed like she was the only one that even noticed that I was here as I looked around to see if Salya had come to see me. She smiled and nodded in my direction, causing me to look back at her with a perplexed expression. “Congratulations, you’ve awakened your magic.”

It took me some time to process what she said, but once I did, I jumped up from the ground and looked up at her excitedly. “Really?! Am I a Wind Mage now!?”

She chuckled and shook her head in denial. “I don’t know. Why don’t you try it? You should be able to feel the magic you have and use it naturally.”

I quickly nodded and turned to the open grass field. I lifted my hand and I felt how the magic stirred within me to leave my body and shape the world. I directed it to my hand, expecting wind to come flying out of it.

Nothing happened. Perhaps I’m not yet used to it. Maybe a bit more strength will help. So I lifted my other hand, placing both hands forward, with the same expectations as before, but yet again… nothing happened.

I clutched my hands into fists in frustration and lifted my arms up with a shout. The ground in front of me suddenly rose up, a couple of rock towers, the size of a grown adult, had appeared. I was startled and fell back on my butt.

The old director laughed and walked past me, lifting one hand forward at the towers and forcing them back down to the ground in one swift and simple movement of her hand, reshaping the ground to how it was before.

She turned around, lowering herself to look at me and my astonished face. “We are fellow Earth Mages, it seems.”