A carriage was passing through a small village. Inside were two women, one that look to be 16 with long dark hair tied in a ponytail and green eyes and one that looks to be in her mid 30's with short cut, light brown hair and the same eyes.
"Mother, tell me why we are going so far west? This trip has been long and boring! I just want to go home to brother and learn more about Terra!" Said the young girl with a sour expression.
"We are going west exactly because you want to learn to use Terra, my dear. Your Father's Teacher lives not far from where we are now, which should be... The village of Nova Grandum! He will teach you to use Terra." Replied her Mother.
"Waaahh? I'm going to learn from Grandpa Keith? Why didn't you tell me before? I would have been practicing while we were on the road!" She said with an excited smile on her face before her face turned sour again and continued, "Why is this small, little village called Nova Grandum anyway? Such a bold and arrogant name for such a small village!"
"Bold? Yes. Arrogant? No, my child. The greatest Novum in history was born here, hence its renaming to Nova Grandum. All aspiring Novum at the Royal Novum Academy make a pilgrimage here to refresh their outlook and see what he saw all those years ago." replied her Mother once more.
Outside on the dirt path running next to the road, there jogged a boy of about 12 with pitch black hair and brown eyes.
"So that's why all those strangers keep coming to our village! Who would have thought that our tiny, little village had such a great heritage?" He said to himself with a proud look on his face.
He was an orphan living alone on the edge of the village, in a small hut just big enough for him walk a few steps before running out of space. As he was returning to his hut, after eavesdropping on the carriage, he heard a commotion coming from the village spuare. After rushing over to see what was happening, he was shocked to see the whole village down on one knee, with their arms crossed making an 'X', with closed fists and heads bowed. He looked to the centre of the crowd and saw a bald middle aged man wearing brown robes with a strange insignia on the left breast. Even as an orphan in a small village, he knew what this insignia meant. A Terrum Master of the highest Rank! He immediately dropped onto one knee and copied the others.
As he bowed his head, the middle aged man in the front spoke, "I sensed the awakening of an Elemental in this village and as such, would like to inspect all of the children between the ages of 10 and 14. Make a line!"
Dread appeared on his face as he heard this. He hadn't eaten his midday meal yet and was starting to feel hungry. The last thing he wanted to do was wait while those middle aged men inspected all 20 children in the village. He just wanted to go to the tavern and have the soup made by the cook. But unfortuneately, he would have to wait.
All the parents eagerly stood up and pushed their children forward to be inspected, ignoring the fact that the middle aged man specifically asked for ages 10 to 14. As such, the amount of children that waited in line counted more than double of what it should have been. As the middle aged man started to inspect the children, his brows furrowed as he could tell the first child was well over 16, but he just sighed as he knew these folk would do anything to escape the life of poverty that they were living. As he tested the children one by one, sighs could be heard escaping his lips as each one was a failure. As the line dwindled, the middle aged man started to doubt that he had sensed anything, but as he reached the last child, who looked to about 12, he grabbed the boy's wrist and smile instantly broke out across his face. He had found him! He had found the one that awakened!
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"What is your name boy?" asked the middle aged man.
"Jacob!"
"Where are your parents, child?" The middle aged man asked.
"I have none." Jacob replied simply.
"Then this is simple, come with me boy." The middle aged man said as he turned around and started walking out of the square.
The other villagers all looked at Jacob with delight. Even if it wasn't their child that awakened, at least someone from the village had. Jacob quickly ran after the man and as he left the square, the man turned around and looked at Jacob.
Jacob's vision started to blacken as he felt dizzy. "I dont feel so..." he said right before he collapsed into the arms of the man. Before he lost consciousness, he heard the man whisper, "Be at ease Aardum, all will be well when you awake."
With that, Jacob lost consciosness.
Jacob woke up wondering what he was lying on, as he had never felt anything as comfortable in his life and when he awoke, the middle aged man was standing next to the bed. "Where am I? questioned Jacob as he sat up.
"My home. Follow me." The man replied simply.
Jacob followed the man out of the room before even getting a proper look at the room. He entered a room simply adorned with a small wooden table and 4 chairs, a plain mat off in the corner and light stone hanging from the roof.
"Take a seat." said the middle aged man, pointing to the table.
"First off, my name is Keith. You must have many questions and I will do my best to answer all of them." continued the man." continued the man.
"What did you do to me back at the village? Why did you being me back to your home? Why were you so excited to find me, even though im just another newly awakened Aardum? How did you know I was an Aardum when even I didn't?" Jacobs asked all in one breath.
"For your first question, you will naturally come to know what I did. I brought you here because I want to teach you the basics of being an aardum and the reason i was so excited... I just had a feeling you were special! As for knowing you were an Aardum, I simply sent some of my Elementa into your body and sensed the Aard Elementa in you." replied Keith.
"Now, do you want to be my disciple, if only for short time?" asked Keith.
"Yes!" replied Jacob instantly. He had always dreamed of being an elemental, so how could he say no to such an opportunity?
"Good! Tell me what you know of Elementals."
"Elementals are broken into 4 big catagories: Aardum, who use Aard(air). Novum, who use Nova(fire). Terrum, who use Terra(earth). Neróm, who use Neró(water). That is all I know Keith."
"It's Master Keith now... But yes your basic understanding is good. Let me expand on that for you. They each have their own specialities: Aard Elementa is swift and sharp.Nova Elementa is fierce and explosive. Terra Elementa is extremely sturdy and crushing. Neró Elementa is flowing and generally has some healing properties. Each Elementa can also have deviants. For example, Aard Elementa can have some spacial properties, allowing the Aaardum to store items in a small pocket dimension..."
As Keith finished speaking, voices could be heard outside, then came a knock at the door. Keith sighed as he moved towards the door. When he opened it, two women were standing there, one looking to be about 16 and the other much older.
"Grandpa! Why did you move without telling us? We went to where you used to live and found literally nothing... Oh and um... Hello!" shouted the young girl.
"Please come in!" He replied while he gave a small chuckle.
The two women entered the house and noticed Jacob. "Grandpa, who is this boy? Why is he here?" asked the young girl, looking slighty shocked to see anyone else here.
"That is Jacob. He is my new disciple!"
"But... But... He's just a peasant boy!"