Belfry POV

I didn't know what came over me, but when I heard mother's screams from down stairs, I ran down as fast as I could. The sight of her on the ground, being kicked by Roland caused something to surge in me. My eyes burned hot, suddenly, coloured dots appeared before my eyes.

Even then, I had only one thought in mind.

'I need to get that arse off of her.'

Bright green orbs swayed as if at the command of my mind. Following them was a tossing around Roland who was heartlessly stomping on mother.

The confusion and surprise I would have normally felt were nowhere to be found. Instead, I instinctively understood what to do. I stretched my hand forward and a ball of flames popped up, spinning and burning brightly. It may not have looked like much, but I could tell that something like that was more than enough to burn a person to death.

With my eyes locked on my target who was now at a safe distance away from mother, I prepared to launch my fireball. The only goal in mind to kill Roland.

My body oozed with power, and my physical surroundings started to feel unreal. They faded to black, leaving me floating in an empty space.

In this darkness, an iridescent spark glowed brightly before me. Like a moth to a flame, I wanted to reach out to it, but just then, I felt arms wrap around me and a voice whisper into my ear "Not yet."

Suddenly, I was drawn back and I could feel mother's sweat snaking down my neck.

"Don't do it. Don't kill your own father.", She cried. A certain rage boiled up in me at her words. My body shook mightily as I held myself back from shouting, biting my lips and glaring at Roland.

Weakly, my hand fell down and the fireball dissipated. The powerful winds travelling through the room faded out, dropping Roland to the ground with a loud thud, taking away with them the fire of the fireplace. I looked away, from Roland.

"Are you alright?", I asked, stroking her back as she shivered.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be? I'm your… I'm your mother. I… I could never b-", She choked on her words, the tears overflowing.

Quietly and dolefully, I stroked her head.

Telling her it was alright to cry at my age felt somewhat condescending and disgraceful, so instead, I could do what children did best. Be the innocent light that adults sometimes needed.

"It's ok, mama. The bad man is gone now.", I said, with all the wilful childishness I could muster, while looking at Roland lying on the ground, sleeping peacefully like he'd never done anything wrong.

She couldn't say anything back to me. It was a while before she finally wiped away her tears.

***

The Crimson Sea

The cold winds of the desert night blew harshly, adding piles to massive the mountain of grey rock. Hidden by this grey rock was a massive underground city, that ran deep, with tunnels that popped up out of the desert.

These tunnels were mostly the gateway for most to travel at night, due to the existence of numerous monsters that terrorised the desert night. One of these monstrous existences being the Grey Back Buzzard.

The Grey Back Buzzard, a creature easily 4 times the size of a full-grown man and considered a dangerous beast, was considered a rarity. They were beasts that rarely let themselves be seen, swooping down on unsuspecting travellers at night and killing them off in a single blow. With the ability to fly with zero noise and enough patience to track prey for days, they were one of the major reasons most refused to travel the desert at night.

Stolen novel; please report.

None of that a problem to the man sitting behind his campfire, at the top of this grey rock. In his hand, he held the bones of the Grey Back Buzzard he'd cut down and turned into a meal.

He dropped the bones at his feet, then stood up. From the only eye hole in his mask, a pale blue light glowed.

"Semblance?", He muttered. Groaned, while in thought. "No. It's half. Not quite there yet. Almost. Soon."

Quickly, without waiting, he started to march towards north.

A little wolf jumped at the bones he'd left on the ground, munching on them. When the wolf was done, it looked up to see that the masked man was long gone.

***

Belfry POV

Even after the incident, mother still tended to Roland's injuries that night. I was so peeved, that my body literally boiled up. The next time I woke up, two days had apparently passed. Even then, I wasn't able to open my eyes immediately. It was too bright for me, so I was virtually blind for another 2 days.

When I was able to, everything was back to normal. Mother was elated, Roland was nowhere to be found and I could go about my normal business.

Obviously, my first order of business was to go run over to Lola's cottage. I had to tell her about what I saw the night I confronted Roland. I was certain she'd be dying to know about this too.

When I got there, the door leading to the house burst open, giving me quite a scare. I jumped back reflexively.

From the door, a ball of cherry red popped up, with their chest puffed up and hands on their waist in a heroic pose. Rosine was up and about it in full force, donning her super confident grin.

"Belfry! I see you've come to check up on me, but fear not!" She roared.

'Ah… right. She almost died the last time I was here.'

With the whole Roland thing and me using a completely different element, I'd completely forgotten about Rosine. It looked pretty serious back then, but now she was destroying my ear drums with her loud voice.

"Ah, yes. Good to see you are good. Is Lola there?", I asked, trying to get into the house.

Rosine jumped in front of me, however, her nose held up high.

"Uuh, lemme just.", I tried to get past her, but she just obstructed my path once again, clearing her throat while still not looking at me.

She normally did this when she had something she wanted to talk about but didn't want to be the one to bring it up.

I gave in.

"Is there something new about you, Rosine?", I asked in the most genuine voice possible, hoping for her to get it.

Rather, I got a smack to the head.

"Say it like you mean it next time!", She warned, now frowning. "But since you did ask, I'll still show you."

She stretched her hand forward, then started to grunt. I quietly observed her for a good minute. As nothing happened the long0er I waited, she started to turn beet red.

I wanted to hurry up and go talk to Lola, but ignoring Rosine's colossal failure at a grab for my attention couldn't possibly end well. If there was one thing being a child had taught me, it was that children were extremely temperamental and attention-needy. Not giving them what they wanted would definitely end badly, be it for the kid or the observer.

"Wow! Impressive! Really impressive!"

My attempts at praising her ended up only infuriating the child. She balled her hand into a fist and tried to punch me in the face, but I was prepared for it this time. I'd raised my arms up in defence, but that was completely negligible in the face of Rosine's righteous fist.

Upon impact, it felt like my arms were burning. A little bit stunned and concerned, I dropped my hands quickly to get a good look at them, and they were a little bit singed red. The sound of a crackling flame entered my ears, so I looked at Rosine.

There, she raised her fist that was set ablaze.

"Ah! Ah! F-fire! Fire! Fire. Fire?"

Suddenly, it hit me. The thing Rosine wanted to show me so badly.

"Magic! You unlocked magic!", I grabbed her and jumped up and down excitedly.

"Uuh."

"Wow! And it's silent casting too! You really are a genius! You really are one of a kind, haha! Ah… I'm no longer the special one here."

"Uuuhhhhh!"

'Uh… I'm no longer special. That actually mattered to me?'

What about Rosine being special irked me so? Was I actually jealous of her?

There was no way that was the case.

"Aaahhhhhh!"

Rosine's pained cry drew me from my thoughts. Suddenly, the smell of burning meat entered my nose and my eyes settled on the girl, waving her burning palm in pain.

Did she burn herself with her own magic? That never happened to me before.

'Is she just stupid or something?'

I observed her for a little while longer, thinking of just how stupid it was to burn yourself with your own fireball, when I realised she couldn't turn it off.

My body kicked into action faster than my mind could think. I stretched my hand forward and mana surged through my body. The image of a ball of water came into mind, and suddenly, blue orbs of light gathered at my fingertips.

Once my mana connected with these orbs, what I could only describe as an explosion occurred, and suddenly, there was water gushing out of my fingers, onto Rosine's palm.

In no time, I'd quenched the fire and the girl was just standing there with tears from at the corners of her eyes. With her shaky frown, I got the feeling that I was about to get beat up for something, but before any of that could happen, the door to the cottage opened up and Lola came walking through.

When she saw me, she gave me a shocked, dazed expression.