Trudging up a hill along a steep and winding path, was a young woman with nothing else but an oversized backpack on her back. Her intense icy blue eyes gazed at the top of the hill where a stream of smoke was coming from, while a faint breeze pushed back her shoulder length platinum hair.

She wore a fancy white and blue uniform that tightly fit around her lean body, accompanied by a pair of thick brown boots. Beside her clothes she also had a platinum silver ring on her right index finger with a tiny inscription on it, too small to see from afar.

Lastly, resting on the upper right side of her uniform, was a golden badge with a snowflake symbol inside of a circle that had a triangle at the top, bottom and on both sides. This symbol represented her status as an ice elementalist classholder.

If some saw her walking, they might be intimidated by her facial appearance as her eyes were cold, her face was sharp, and she seemed to always look like she was thinking of the best way to kill you.

But she couldn't help how she looked— that was just her natural resting face.

Then for those that interacted with her, It didn't help that her personality was stricter than most since she cared a lot about rules and respect— and being strict was a package deal for someone like her. She also didn't like beating around the bush, if she had something she needed to say, she would say it— even if it wasn't always the nicest.

But beside those things, she was just your average twenty year old woman… that was also a classholder. There were a few initial things you could fear from her, like her appearance, her status as a classholder, or her tribe status, but she only wanted the best for everyone.

It was hard at first, but she was glad she had accomplished her goals of making friends at the academy. She even achieved a goal she thought would never happen so soon— finding a lover. There was a lot to unpack during her days at the academy, but right now she was focused on getting home, other important things could be left for a later time.

Today was her third day traveling back home after having left the academy as one of its graduates. The first day she was able to ride on a beastmasters beast, which saved her an extra day of traveling, but the last two days she's had to walk the entire time, either camping outside or finding a town to stay for the night.

Her home was a little harder to find than most considering she lived in a tribe of nomads who didn’t stay anywhere longer than a week. Thankfully her small tribe of just under a hundred, knew the time frame in which she would graduate and had planned to wait in the same area she had left four years back.

Seeing the smoke up on the hill, Mira knew she was close. Only a couple more minutes before she would be back and reunited with her family and her tribe.

‘Let's hope everything goes well’ Mira thought to herself, knowing that there'd be a tough discussion to have with her family later.

As she got closer to the apex of the hill, her heart began to drum faster, her nerves, excitement, and bottled up emotions from not having seen her family for so long was about to burst out of her.

Three more steps, two more, one more.

Stepping over the lip of the hill, she saw the familiar sight of massive leather tents pitched around the flat surface of the hill, all surrounding one large communal campfire in the center. The evening sun, almost already under the horizon, was to her back and casted her distorted shadow onto the campsite.

Looking around she could spot the figures of people further into the camp, sitting at the edge of the fire with bowls of food in hand. A faint whiff of aroma from whatever they were cooking, drifted towards Mira’s nose and calmed her nerves.

She adjusted her backpack and then walked towards the campfire, ready to see her family and tribe once again. It didn't take long for others to spot her, and when they did, they hollered and cheered louder than she’d ever heard.

Unlike her current attire, the clothes of the tribe were simple and made from their own two hands using beast hide, leather, or whatever else they could get their hands on during their journey. They didn’t go into towns much to purchase items, but they still occasionally did, allowing some families to purchase more refined, tailor made clothes.

A little surprised by the cheering, then even more stunned when a whole collection of her tribe rushed at her and surrounded her with a big hug. Two of the larger male members even lifted her off the ground and carried her on their shoulders while another took off her backpack and carried it along with her,

Mira was flustered, not sure what to do or how to respond, so she could only sit still and wait for more to happen. They brought her over to the large campfire and placed her down on a wooden throne-like chair before they found their own seats, her backpack was also neatly placed down beside her.

“Mira’s back!” Her mind filtered out the sounds, but tens of folk started calling out to the rest of the tribe still in their tents. Then like ants to the colony, everyone began to leave their tents and converge on the campfire while also starting two smaller campfires nearby to fit everyone around.

The rhythmic beats of drums began to play, creating an invigorating atmosphere that the tribe could dance to. Another man came over and handed her a bowl of stew and a plate of bread and meat for her to eat.

While a lot was happening, she could recognize the man. There were 94 members of her tribe, maybe more had been born, but for those 94 alive before she left, she could remember each and everyone one of their names. Why? It was because they were like family to her.

Then she saw a massive man jogging towards her, his each and every step causing thumps as he got closer to her. The man had long white hair tied up in a ponytail and an equally long beard separated in two braids. Even bigger than his hair was his frame, he was a hulking man that could stand toe to toe with a bear, and that didn't even take into account his extensive, tattoo covered muscles all over his body.

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Like most of the tribe, he wore a simple fur coat, leather shorts and one large strap across his chest which he used to carry his greatsword. His icy blue eyes locked on to Mira and once he was within arm range of her, without hesitation he picked her up and covered her body in an embrace. The food in her arms was thrown to the ground, a little bit of waste but she couldn't chide her father, he must be ecstatic seeing her.

No words needed to be said, they let the physical contact communicate for them.

Then from behind her father, she saw her mother and younger sister come flying at her and join in on the hug. Tears streamed down their faces and they cried in joy seeing Mira again— they had been apart for so long.

“Mira! Let me look at you.” her mother, Myral Frosthorn, said after her father put her down on the ground. Her gentle hands caressed Mira’s tearful face, while her eyes scanned every little detail trying to compare this new Mira to the old Mira.

Her mother had light blue hair matched with similar colored eyes, and her body was similar to her fathers in the way of muscles. She was a warrior through and through and you could tell by the countless battle scars covering her body. But those few scars didn't take away from her mothers beauty, it was no wonder a man like her father would fall in love with her.

“Mira sis!” A young woman who looked almost identical to Mira but had a few differences like her hair length, her slightly chubbier facial appearance and a few small freckles on her cheek, dove at Mira. This was Mira’s younger sister Yura, who was turning 16 this year.

Yura's small body, even smaller than the already petite Mira, was wrapped up tightly by Mira as streams of tears came down her face. They stayed embraced together before a horn sounded and echoed throughout the hilltop. The drums stopped and a silence took over the hill, except for the sound of the burning campfires nearby.

The chief of the tribe, Yuroth— who was also her father— put down his horn and looked at his daughter one again with a big mighty grin. “My daughter, Mira Frosthorn, is back!!”

Cheers resounded through the camp and the drumming started back up even faster and more dramatic than before. Everyone beside her mother and sister began to dance and eat to their heart's content, their long awaited time atop this hill was over and they could now move on.

Their family was once again reunited at last!

Mira couldn't but yawn, it was getting late and she had a long few days of traveling. Even the sound of drums and excited cheering only rejuvenated her slightly, all she wanted was to take a nice full day of sleep.

“You must be tired from your long journey, here eat some food before you head in for the night.” Myral handed her another bowl of food to replace the one thrown to the ground and then sat down on a chair next to her.

Yura could barely contain her excitement and sat down next to Mira while fidgeting, trying her best not to just explode into a barrage of questions. Seeing the exhausted face of her sister, she knew it wasn't the right time, but even then, she had to ask at least a few questions to appease her curiosity.

“What was it like at the academy?” Was Yura’s first question— better to start simple, she thought.

Mira smiled thinking of the academy and the people she met there and said, “The academy… is a truly special place. It was the greatest experience of my life afterall.”

“Really that amazing?!” Yura gasped and remembered all the fun things they’ve done together. “It beats all your birthday parties?”

“Mm.” Mira nodded. “Beside the academy itself which is like a paradise, the real amazing thing was the people.”

“Ohhhh, did you make any friends?”

“Three in fact.” That was a half truth if you take into account Jane was her girlfriend, not a friend-friend.

“Awesome! Am I gonna be able to meet them?”

“I hope so.” Mira smiled and left it at that. She wasn't ready to have the ‘big’ conversations with her family today, but she didn't want to delay it more, so tomorrow would be the day.

The easiest conversation would be her telling them she was going to visit her friends in Redwood, then came the conversation of her having a girlfriend… then the hardest topic about her leaving the tribe. That last one would be tough.

She had lied when she told Jane that her parents would most likely approve of her leaving the tribe so as to not worry Jane. In reality, she was the daughter of the chief and was in line to succeed after her father but in all honesty… she didn't want to.

Living with Jane in Redwood was her plan and it was what she wanted to do, if her parents disapproved of this… she really didn't know what to do. Being banished by the tribe would be horrible, she wouldn't be able to see her family… but Jane was also important to her.

It was so hard to decide what to do that it was eating away at her mind, she even missed another question Yura had asked her. It took Yura shaking her shoulder for her to realize she was absent minded.

“You okay?”

“Sorry, just a little exhausted from the trip. I think I'll head in for the night.” Mira replied and got up from her chair. “You can ask me all your questions tomorrow after I've had some sleep, goodnight for now.”

Yura said goodnight, a little disappointed she was leaving so soon. Myral was also next to her and grabbed her hand. “Rest up well.”

She smiled and said, “Thank you.” Before leaving to find their family's tent, which was pretty obvious because it was the largest one.

Her father was busy partying with the fellow tribesmen since his job as chief demanded him to not just sit around. He saw Mira walk away from the campfire and locked eyes with Myral who mouthed to him, ‘She's tired.’ He nodded in understanding, she deserved rest after all. In her stead he would keep the tribe occupied, if they wanted to ask questions, that could wait till tomorrow.

Mira didn't waste any time lollygagging and walked into the Frosthorn tent, the partying still going strong outside. Each of the tents was large enough to fit an entire family in it, it was easily the size of her dorm room back at the academy— except it didn't have extra rooms like a bathroom.

She’d have to get used to using the outhouses here. They weren’t bad considering they had elementalist runes to clean up, but it was still just a wooden box instead of an actual bathroom like at the academy. She didn't even want to think about the showers here.

Finding her old blankets resting in one corner of the tent, she plopped herself down onto them before closing the curtain stitched into the tent to cover her corner. She covered herself with the blankets and closed her eyes, but the thoughts were too loud in her head.

‘This is going to be a long night.’ She thought to herself and tried her best to fall asleep.