Five years passed like fifty as Yole began to grow at last, though five years old still wasn’t necessarily ideal as he was on the short side for his age. He was almost three feet tall now thanks to his most recent growth spurt and was starting to put on lean muscle thanks to all of the training he had been doing.

Everyday since he relearned how to walk he went to the castle training grounds, following his brother and sister, and copied their moves in hand to hand combat and sword fighting. When he turned four his parents gifted him with a heavy wooden sword to practice with after he’d tried to get to his real one that remained mounted high on his bedroom wall out of reach. In his past life he’d used a katana a handful of times, but it was vastly different from fighting with a broad sword.

His only real problem now was finding someone who would train with him seriously.

Cettie was too hesitant when they sparred in fear of hurting her precious baby brother and Beor was the exact opposite, so on the days he actually agreed to spare with Yole he fought dirty until Yole had enough and let himself be dragged down to his level and they’d have to be separated. Zorin was such a kiss ass that he always let Yole win whenever they spared together and he was praised for the smallest of things. It was annoying more than anything and Yole refused to let himself be spoiled like that. As the baby of the family his parents weren’t as strict with him as they were with his siblings. Yole could get away with murder if he just batted his eyes at his parents and they would just send him off with a pat on the head. But he figured that was because hid siblings had a grander purpose and responsibility than he did, which didn’t say much considering he hadn’t found his purpose yet. Yole thought if he earned a second chance then he had to be a reason behind why. He learned early on that his siblings would carry great burdens in service of their kingdom.

Cettie, the first born twin, was the heir to the throne and would one day reign as queen of The Iron Kingdom, a strong domain that wrapped around the base of a mighty mountain. Everyday their parents would whisk her away for some sort of lesson. Sometimes it was etiquette with Millicet, learning how to conduct herself as proper queen and ruler. Other times it would be sitting in on their Vesamir’s meetings and the royal court to get a first hand look at her future responsibilities. The rest of the time was spent with tutors or learning the fine arts of battle with Uncle Zorin. Of course she always found time to play with her baby brother somehow, and by “play” Yole meant torment. Cettie would treat him like a dress up doll and if he had to sit through one more tea party, he was going to crack. Even still, Yole did love his big sister and couldn’t say no whenever she gave him the puppy dog eyes. A skill she had also passed along to him. He especially liked her more than he liked their brother. Where as Cettie was nothing but kind to him, if not a little over bearing, Beor had only gotten more cold over the years.

As the second born, Beor would take over as captain of the royal guard when Zorin stepped down. It was a position of great prestige as well, but Beor wore his bitterness and resentment on his sleeve. He’d been jealous of Cettie since the day they were born and his seemingly unbridled aggression was one of his many ways to over compensate. He had few friends, the desperate hangers-on to an in with a royal family, and they were all nothing but a posey of schoolyard bullies; who, in spite of their best efforts, couldn’t scare Yole. In his past life he stole lunch money from kids like that when he was their age and Yole loved that it drove Beor crazy to no end that he couldn’t get a real rise out of him. He may have been smaller than his big brother, but that just made it easier to dodge his attacks when they were sparring, which blew another huge hole in Beor’s pride. The bigger they are, the harder they fall after all. And most of the time he could squirm away with little problem during any physical altercations with him off of the training grounds as well.

There was, however, one aspect in which Beor has the upper hand over Yole.

Having spent enough time at the training grounds for one day (or at least that’s what his mother told him when she came to collect him for a nap), Yole found himself fighting his boredom in the nursery by building a replica of the castle with his wooden blocks. Not exactly the most stimulating activity, but it was better than nothing and he’d just barely avoided another game of makeover with Cettie before she was carted off by the tutor she was hiding from. About halfway through, a blue fireball suddenly appeared and enveloped the blocks, turning theme into smoldering ashes. Panicking and thinking that they were under attack, Yole grabbed the nearest weapon, his wooden sword, and poised himself to fight back. Another burst of flame caught on the sword, causing him to throw it down and frantically stomp it out. From the doorway, he heard roars of laughter and turned to see Beor and his friends blocking it.

Until Yole developed his own mana, Beor drastically outclassed him in terms of magic. According to their parents and Lucellia, a person’s mana didn’t awaken until the age of six or seven, so Yole still had at least a year left to go until his own powers came in, it was worse than waiting to lose his baby teeth. And until then he didn’t have anyway to fight back against his brother on even ground.

“Sorry, little brother,” Beor said sarcastically. “I was aiming for your head.”

“I wasn’t worried, you’ve always had piss poor aim,” Yole shot back. “Leave me alone, I’m not in the mood for your crap today.”

“What’d you say to me you little shit?”

Beor crossed the room in a flash and grabbed Yole by the shirt, lifting him clean off of the ground.

“Put me down,” Yole shouted, already wiggling his way out of his shirt.

Yole was no rat, so he never tattled on Beor to their parents, though they had caught him in the act numerous times before. Not to mention forge magic left behind plenty of evidence, But Yole never accused him of being the smarter twin.

“What’re you gonna do? Call mama and papa on me?”

“No, I’ll call Cettie!”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Yole may not snitch to their parents, but he wasn’t above sicking their sister on him. That’s who Beor had the real issue with, but he was too afraid of her and her standing to try any of his normal antics on her. So for now, Yole was the target of his rage until his little brother grew big enough for things to come due. And Cettie certainly wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty for Yole’s sake.

“Tell her and I’ll burn every toy you have!” Beor growled, an empty threat, but the anger in his eyes was truly something to behold.

“Why don’t you start with this?” one of his friends said. While Yole was distracted he’d made his way over to his bed and picked up a small, green knitted blanket that Yole’s mother had made for him when he was a baby.

Now, Yole was technically still an adult on the inside, so he was man enough to admit that the little blanket was very special to him. He dared to say that he loved it. He’d never had anything like that in his past life and he watched Millicet knit that blanket herself, so the fact that she put so much work and love into it was not lost on him. So when Beor’s loser friend handed it over to him, his face turned bright red until he struggled in earnest.

“Drop it,” he hissed, his voice ice cold. “Right now!”

“What, you don’t want your blankie to get messy?” Beor asked mockingly. “You’re such a baby!”

Yole could see the hesitation just beneath his brother’s surface that blanket was usually off limits, but he didn’t want to back down in front of his friends. Violently, Yole felt his temper and temperature spike at the humiliation of being talked down to like that. He had to put up with his family’s babying for five whole years and being talked down to was the absolute worst part about it. Much less being talked down to while having his property threatened. Heat coursed through his body and his hands were a burning inferno.

“I said drop it!” he shouted, allowing his own angry fervor to lash out, his hands bursting into wild blue flames.

Startled, Beor dropped Yole and stepped back, patting out the fire that caught on his own sleeves. Yole landed with a loud thud on the ground and scrambled to snatch his blanket away, but pulled back when he saw that his hands were engulfed in flame. He felt white hot all over, though he originally thought it was due to the embarrassment, but it didn’t hurt. Painless, bright blue flames danced at his finger tips and spread until it covered his arms, burning away his sleeves. Fearful for a moment that Beor had actually set him on fire this time, Yole tried to pat it out and smother it, but it only fanned the flames. The other boys watched on helplessly as Yole tried to figure out what was happening until Beor decided to do something smart for a change and ran to get their parents, his cronies following close behind.

It took another moment or two of panicking for Yole to calm down and realize what was really going on.

His mana had awakened!

Yole smiled ear to ear and laughed in triumph. This was the moment he’d been waiting for since his rebirth! He could finally use magic and his fire was so strong! Now… he just had to figure out how to turn it off before he burned his room down.

The answer came he was overwhelmed by a cold burst, as if a bucket of water had been thrown over him and his flames disappeared as quickly as they had come, though the heat remained. Yole looked back to the doorway again and this time saw his mother and father standing there with Lucellia, all of them were shocked speechless. At first, Yole though he was in trouble when no one said nothing, if that were the case he’d have to whip up some quick tears to cry his way out of it like he always did. A part of him felt truly disheartened. They always sounded so excited when they talked about him getting his powers one day. So why weren’t they happy now? But instead of a scolding or a smack, Yole was swept up into his mother’s arms in a crushing hug.

“Oh my precious little boy!” Millicet cheered at the top of her lungs as she smothered her youngest in kisses. “I can’t believe your mana has already awakened! I’m so proud of you!”

“My dear boy, you’re only five and the royal flames are already at your whim!’ Vesamir boomed happily and joined the hug. “Even I wasn’t able to summon blue fire until I was eight.”

Yole breathed out a sigh of relief as he was crushed between his parents. It was a feeling he hadn’t been very familiar with at first, but it was one of satisfactory mixed with elation whenever he made his parents happy or proud. Vesamir and Millicet were also not the type of parents to hold back on praise either, both were eager to celebrate even the smallest of their children’s accomplishments, especially for their youngest who had many firsts to overcome.

“How did you manage to bring this about, son?” Vesamir asked, setting Yole down.

“Oh… well, Beor helped me out a little,” Yole said sheepishly, still doing his best not to snitch on what really happened.

“I told you this child had the strength of a dragon in him,” Lucellia said, picking up the charred remains of the wooden sword. “I’m just glad I made here in time to extinguish him before there was anymore damage.”

“Sorry,” Yole muttered, blushing again.

“Don’t worry about it, my boy,” Vesamir laughed, clapping Yole on the shoulder and nearly knocking him over. “I burned just about every toy I had when I first got my powers. That’s why we have tutors like Lucellia.”

Lucellia smiled humbly and nodded.

“Your highness, now that your mana has awakened you’ll be in my charge from now on,” Lucellia explained gently. “I’ll train you to control it and turn it into forge magic, so you can wield it wisely and greatly.”

“So I’ll magic lessons like Beor and Cettie in the training room?” Yole asked. The training room in the basement of the castle was a place that Yole hadn’t been allowed inside of yet, being cited as too dangerous for such a little boy. Though he had been caught peeking through the key hole several times.

Vesmair and Millicet looked at each other hesitantly and guided Yole to sit down with them on the bed.

Uh oh, Yole thought, this can’t be good.

“Sweetheart, newly awakened mana can be unpredictable and dangerous in the wrong environment,” Millicet explained, a little teary eyed. “especially the royal bloodline’s type of forge magic.”

“So for two years,” Vesamir continued, looking a bit upset as well, “you will go to live with Lucellia in her cottage, where she will teach you everything you need to know. It’ll be a hard adjustment, but you’re a big boy now and we trust that you’ll be able to handle it.”

So that’s what they were so worried about; sending their child away to what Yole imagined would be magic boot camp for two whole years. The two of them were more worried about it than he was, Yole was too excited for words! This would be his first time leaving the castle grounds in his new life. Finally he’d be able to go out and explore this new world properly, it would be a true adventure! The only thing that kept him from literally jumping for joy was the looks on his parents faces, looks of sincere worry and heartache. Yole supposed he could understand their point of view, having to give up their child to someone else for such a long time. He recalled Cettie telling him a little bit about her time with Lucellia and she’d been a two years older than he was now. He may have been ready to say goodbye for two years, but that didn’t mean they were.

Ever the dutiful son, who tried desperately to fit into that role given his true nature, Yole crawled into his mothers lap and wrapped his arms around her.

“I’ll miss you mama,” he said quietly. “Papa too,” he added quickly when he saw how put out his father looked.

“We’ll miss you too, my baby,” Millicet said. “But just think about the adventures you’ll have and how wonderful it will be to be able to use your magic. Lucellia is a brilliant tutor, I’m sure her lessons will be fun too.”

“You’ll be in good hands your highness,” Lucellia reassured him. “And your parents will be allowed to visit you from time to time, I promise it won’t be all work and no play.”

“Promise?” Yole asked and held out his pinky finger, playing his part perfectly.

“Promise,” Lucellia said and hooked her pinky with his.

Their adventure was only just beginning.