In the wilderness 60 km away from the city of Thespar.

The mighty goblin roared swinging its huge scimitar from side to side. The three warrior monks shook with fear. Each long spear quivered in their hands, besides them were mauled bodies of the six other comrades they were travelling with. It was hopeless, had they tried to run the goblin would rush in and strike the deserter. The five other bodies, were also warriors who had tried to flee all at the same time. Perfectly smashed into their skulls were five stone axes.

The goblin bared its teeth at the remaining warriors. The red warrior monk stared grimly at the numerous stone axes that was held in place on the belt of the goblin.

“First brother and Third brother, I will run in and distract him, while the two of you flee, ” the monk dressed in red ran forward with his spear activating his red coloured battle aura.

“No Second bother I cannot abandon you.” Replied the eldest of the three, he too ran in with his blue dress robes streaming behind him. An azure glow covered his body.

“First brother, Second brother,” piped the warrior monk dressed in yellow already running beside them, “I will never abandon you.” The third warrior held his spear firm and took on a yellow aura channeling his battle Ki.

The three warriors ran in towards the mighty goblin in a stream of three colours.

“Ahhhh!” Roared each to the three brothers, after living each other for so long, they already had an unspoken strategy in place.  The blue elder brother took to aiming for fatal blows - such as the eyes or the jugular; the red brother would tank the blow with his own weapon - aiming to engage directly blow for blow; while the youngest and smallest of three would use his speed and aim to his blows to his opponent's legs to try cause the monster to trip.

As the three brother converged onto the goblin, it also drew it own battle aura in retaliation.

A black greasy aura floated and surrounded the goblin’s body.  

Bzztt…

It was as if the light from the sun was being sucked into the body of the goblin in an instant. The three streams of coloured light were flung back, by a black flash, their bodies flew twenty metres into the air landing in a bloom of dust and stones.

The blue warrior monk coughed up blood. He quickly glanced at his brothers hoping that they did not sustain much damage.

He could only hear silence, ‘Have I lost my brothers?’ And he cried in anguish.

The red warrior monk, coughed and sputtered the dust from his eyes.  Strangely, he could see nothing so he kept rubbing his eyes hard, in an attempt to clear the debris from his eyes. Fortunately he hear elder brother groaning, giving him some consolation.

He tried to listen for his little brother’s groaning,‘Where is little yellow?’ Yet, he could hear nothing.

The youngest brother opening and closing his mouth in pain yet not a peep was spoken through his mouth. When he flew backwards his arm had collided with a tree, causing it to be bent in three unnatural angles.

‘Why did our battle ki fail to protect us?’

In the instant that the three warriors were thinking this a black light flash over to their direction

“Pathetic humes,” mumbled the goblin through his pointed teeth.

He took a few casual steps towards the blind warrior while testing the sharpness of his blade. Yellow wordlessly yelled to his brother Red, gesturing for him to run away.

“For your courage I have cursed you,” smiled the goblin, strings of his saliva mixed with blood made his pointed teeth look more pointy.  The blue warrior monk could now see the goblin’s silhouette approaching to his second brother.

“Hahhahaa but alas you shall not be cursed for long.”

“SECOND BROTHER RUN!” The blue warrior monk dragged his body limping toward his brother in order to protect him. Being the eldest he had promised his mother that he would always look after his siblings.

“I shall eat you live as fresh meat tastes best.” licking the edge of his scimitar, the blood from the other dead warriors had crusted to blade.

Just as the goblin was licking the edge of the blade, a orange light spiraled down from the sky.

Zooompppp BANG!

Surrounding my dust and an bright orange light a feminine voice could be heard

“Whoo whooo! I found a possessor!” A bright orange battle aura surrounded and hovered around the voice; a sphere that spun into itself expelling the dust disturbed from the flying comet that fell from the sky.

“It’s my lucky day,” a pure orange ball of battle ki, free of any dust, surrounded a feminine petite figure.

“Who are you?” Sputtered the goblin. He felt nervous at the word Possessor.

As the debris cleared the goblin showed an expression of surprise looking at his new opponent. There in front of him was a green eyed teenage girl with a short layered pixie style hair cut with a long ponytail. Her silver hair that floated with the wind was tied with a single pink ribbon that matched the colour of the weapons she wielded in her hands. Two 45 cm long fans. Unfolding one in her right hand she hid her face and smiled at the goblin.

“Death!”

The fan in her hand sealed shut instantaneously. She propelled herself forward wielding both folded fans like batons (proper weapon name note to self look this up). The goblin sensing danger with his opponent wielding two weapons. The mysterious black aura shimmered around his left hand, he summoned a second scimitar, however, this blade was engrossed with a light of darkness that strobed and flickered eerily.

As the two blades collided with the two fans the orange figure unfurled the fans, swinging the fan’s metal blade in seven smooth movements. Black sparks fell where the two collided causing the green grass to die in an instant. The goblin smiled, heavy weapons had the advantage when they connect with a lighter weapon.  

The three brothers who had been injured now move away from the battle as far as they could; the blue warrior monk and the yellow warrior monk were mesmerised by the intense battle that was happening in front of them.

“What is happening?!” Cried the red warrior monk.

The yellow warrior monk pulled the blue warrior monk’s sleeve.

“YOU SAID SOMETHING?”

The yellow warrior monk slapped himself in the face and point to the sky and then make glasses actions then pointed at the red warrior monk.

‘Oh red still has some dust in his eyes. Why did he not say so earlier?’ Thought the blue warrior monk and he turned to reply to them.

“THEY ARE FIGHTING..”

The red warrior monk’s milky eyes stared at the direction of his blue brother’s voice. The red monk pulled a face expecting more useful information, the blue warrior monk could see his red brother’s mouth opening and his mouth pouting.  

“That’s pretty obvious from the sounds of things,” red said listening intently on the clash of blades in the distance.  

“SAY WHAT?”

It took a while for the blue warrior monk to understand what his brother was asking. Taking note of his brother’s face the blue warrior monk answered:

“IT’S A PRETTY GIRL WITH AN ORANGE AURA. ”

“How pretty?”

Blue monk looked to little yellow and Little yellow grasped his chest area.

“VERY HUGE.”

Red nodded and raised an eyebrow in consternation he could see anything.

He looked towards the other hand that was gripping him on his shoulders.

“What do you think little yellow?”

Red could only feel his brother squeezing his shoulder.

‘Wow, she must be that pretty that she have stolen the words from my little brother,’  thought the red warrior monk.

Shhhrrreenkkkk!!!

The black blade of scimitar slid across the flat edge of the metallic folded fan.

The two warriors step back, they were even in terms of battle ki, yet the orange warrior clearly had more experience in dealing with dual weapons. The goblin felt a tinge of panic, on the back of his mind he planned to throw a distraction at the orange warrior. His black battle ki, allowed him to channel the emotion of despair.

The orange fan wielder blinked, the dark ki of despair was expelled from the goblin’s body and she collapsed to one knee. The goblin took advantage of this swinging his blade towards the girl for the killing blow. A great smile appeared on his face, he was feeling ecstatic and extremely happy.

‘Wait why, am I feeling so happy?’ Thought the goblin as his world spun in circles.

A thin orange light flickered and the goblin’s head flew off landing on nearby earth; the cut was so quick that his thoughts were still on the battle even though he had be dealt the killing blow. The goblin’s body collapsed to the ground knees first slumping to the side spurting blood.

The orange girl cancelled her battle ki and reverted back to her orange robes that was offset with a yellow scarf, she was bending down to take a piece of cloth from a dead body to wipe the goblin’s blood from her fan.

“Yeah, I will go there next,” she seemed to be talking and nodding to an invisible figure beside her.

The blue and yellow warrior monk were glad to have watched such a great battle.  With any colour battle ki, a warrior could attach a feeling to the weapon causing a mental attack along with a physical attack. It was not like they could see a warrior use the orange blade of happiness every day. Such a high level of attack mean that she was at least circle 2 on the path of the orange energy.

The yellow brother recalled that those who walked path of orange could use either imbue happiness aura or a caution aura to their skills. He who processed the colour of yellow ki could had the natural ability to highlight weak points of the enemy. While his blue brother could imbue the mental feeling of sadness or even chanel the element of water. Yet these skills were only for higher circle warriors.

Yellow recalled that they  were only at the low levels; blue at  0-268, his brother red at 0-212  and himself at 0-170. They had not even broken through the three quarter mark let alone the  first circle of colours.

The blue and yellow pulled red and the brothers walked up the girl in order to thank her.

“WE THREE BROTHERS THANK YOU FOR SAVING OUR LIVES,” said blue.

Red was facing the wrong direction, until yellow correctly pointed him to their saviour and the  three bowed deeply.

The girl frowned at them as they bowed.

“It’s a pity that you are cursed. Perhaps death would be kinder than to be disabled.” She turned to concentrate on the goblin’s body.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“WHAT SHE SAY?” asked blue.

“She said:It’s a pity that you are cursed. Perhaps death would be kinder than to be disabled.” replied red. Red paused and added, “I suspect you cannot hear elder bro and little bro cannot speak while I cannot see.”

Yellow brother had pulled out a scroll and wrote down what red said to show to brother blue.

“OH,” said blue brother out loud.

The girl bent down near the goblin’s body pushing a miniature sphere of orange ki into the goblin’s heart. What floated above was a clear see through pearl. She smiled and clear pearl disappeared in her hands.

“I must head for the next city, and await the next message.” she said to a blank space beside her.  

She turned to the three brothers and scrunched her nose, “Even your battle light aura is running negatively,” she sighed nodded at the blank spot.

“I suggest you three should travel towards the west there is city where you may live your lives in peace.”

“In peace?!! ”spluttered red brother.

“We want to become battle warrior monks how can we live in peace?” He queried.

The girl smiled sadly, “Even if you get your ki checked out by a practitioner he will say that your fighting days are over. I doubt you can ascend to the next circle with a negative light energy, ” and with that the girl leapt off the ground running towards the west.

The three brothers were left with carnage of the battle and set about to claim any useful materials from the wagons that were rolled over.

*********

In the western city of Thespar.

A crackle of the fire the hot burning embers glowed a friendly light. A green haired youth wearing a worn and well loved leather apron was stoking the fire with last seasons dried apple twigs. The sweet smell of smoky apples and meat was brewing to a simmer and a misty line of vapour and heat billowed into the autumn air from the copper cauldron in front of him.

Looking around his surrounding in the courtyard to check if the coast was clear. He eyed the five bobble head figurines that are sitting on him near the log.  And as if to divert attention from any onlooker, he then scratches his nose gently by the nostrils. Very, gently, massages his nose; fingers lingering moving ever so slightly to the holes of his button nose.

He throws a charming smile at the bobble head figurines, the autumn wind blows and they wiggle their heads in a negative manner. The green haired youth frowns, pulling out a fine linen cloth smoothing its fine creases over and over. He stands up to daintily cover them and proceeds back to his spot on the log skipping in glee.

The green haired youth, known simply as Uriah, proceeded to vigorously poke his index finger inside his nose mining the clear goblet of gold. He dropped it into the stew that was slowly simmering away.  It was an odd mix of many tiny squab with their feet still poking out from the liquid and an odd head weeping stew and an ominous pop of a mucus like bubble - it was quite a fowl stew indeed.

Slam! The doors with peeling paint swung to and fro and a young miss waltzed towards Uriah.

“I was waiting and waiting in the shop for the last ten minutes!”  She shouted while her eyes were ablaze and her red cape caught the wind at times making her entrance an elegant glide with slow motion wind affects; her voluptuous curves and tall figure added to her overly sexy look.  

“Why wasn’t anyone in there?” Said the girl pointing back at the door whence she came from.

“Tis nearing mid day meal,” answered Uriah pointing at the pot he was sitting near

“Is this not  the message office?” queried the young miss who flung out her luminous velvet brown hair with the second gust of wind each strand elegantly resting upon her shoulders.  

“Yes I am and I am also the general store that I also sells a variety of goods including the gastronomical.”

“I see, I am expecting a message it should have been here by now.” She took the time to look around her surroundings and wrinkled her nose.

“I also hold the license to give out messages, ” said Uriah, who was staring at her wrinkled nose.   Uriah frowned at the small nostril on this young miss’s face.

‘So small, where would she store the green gold,’ Uriah thought to himself.

“Well where is your filing cabinet with all the messages?” Her footsteps echoed in the limestone courtyard as she surveyed the building.

She eyes the surrounds, a pile of trash in the corner, old rusty swords and mouldy leather armour.  There is a pond in the courtyard filled with slime, and the snails are having party

“The mail obviously goes by snail, ” pointing at the pond.  

“That is incorrect miss,” interjected Uriah.

Waving his hand to the open sky.

“Messages go by pigeon. Let me go check for messages. ”

Uriah stands up to check the log he is sitting on. He plainly looks at the empty spot he was sitting on and he sits back down and continues to stir the pot.

After his very thorough check he looked at the young miss. “No, there is nothing here miss.”

“Well check again,  I don’t think you looked hard enough.”  Her arms were folded and her foot was tapping impatiently.  Her fist clenched to the point where they looked white.

Uriah frowned he had done everything he could do. If something was not plainly physically here what could he do to procure it? He realised that her demeanor had changed. So he stood up again and this time he stretched his eyelids to the point of popping staring that the empty space he was sitting in.

“No miss I checked harder this time but nothing there.”

“I meant look else where!”

She watched Uriah point his head left and then right, his eyes staying in a widen state while he still sat on the log stirring the point. Finally she should not hold in her rage and shouted.

“The service here is shit!”

She pointed her finger at Uriah, Uriah pointed to himself. He thought that she was pointing at the white smear upon his head. He nodded while smiling pointing at the white spot upon his green spiky hair.  When a customer is angry it is good to agree and sympathise with them and their problem.

In an attempt to breach the silence. Uriah decided explain.

“Aye it is something that nature has given me, good fortune this is.”

“Huh? what do you mean?”

“Let me check with the delivery officer.”

“I thought you were the delivery officer?”

Uriah stood on the log and shouted.

“Cooroo! Cooroo! Cooroo!”

And as if on cue a small grey dusty bird fell with aplomb from the sky. It proceed to crash land on his hair. It gave the girl a meaningful glance.  Its eyes narrowed at the girl and she widened her eyes to stare and defend from its glare. The grey dusty bird’s eyes narrowed further still until only tiny slits of its iris could be seen.

Clearly the stress from the staring competition was agitating its small heart. From the stress that was garnered, out from its little butt, appeared the roundest poop one had ever seen. Pleased with relief, it warbled its buttox as if to say it was done; the action caused a white smear to appear on green hair.  This was the source of the flattened white stripe that was  known as Uriah’s signature hair style.  A shitty hair style indeed.

“Cooroo Cooroo,” said the pigeon, its voice echoing in the limestone courtyard.

“Cooroo Coroo,” replied Uriah, his voice also vibrating against the limestone courtyard.

“Cooroo cooroo,” they both cried.

Abruptly he turned to look at the girl.

“Nope told me she hasn't seen no message,” disturbingly one of his eyes seemed to slide off to another direction.

And with that answer Uriah expected it to be the end of the complaint.

“There are other pigeons you could check with this message is very important! Go contact them at once!”

Uriah silently  proceeded back to log. The tall girl was upset thinking that this rude man had ignored her request.

Uriah lifted the lid to the pot leaning his head forward he spoke to the liquid.

“Cooroo cooroo,”

Silence of the pot boiling with a single bubble popping.

“Fraid the other squab don't know either.”

The girl lean forward and almost brought up breakfast as she stared at the eyeless stew that stared back at her.  A leg twitched in the liquid disturbed by another bubble popping.

“Now miss now that that matter is sorted, would you be interested to partake of some gastronomy?”

“No! I can’t believe this!”

“Yes I can’t believe it either, when you partake of this dish you also have the option to sign up to our point system. Would you be interested?  buying some food and in joining our point sys…”

Uriah was ignored, he felt sad.

“No! I must go and try get another message straight away!” she shimmered a purple aura in rage and left the shop knocking down a few pots in her wake. The broken pottery adding to the disarray of the courtyard.

She swung around and left Uriah in the courtyard with the stew bubbling away.

Uriah shrugged and proceeded to dish himself a bowl of his favourite stew. The viscous stew slopped onto to his mouth and he picked up a serviette to wipe his mouth clean.

After wiping his mouth he took another glance at the serviette. The golden writing shimmered even in the shade of court. Unfurling the note Uriah read:

Congratulations upon reading this you have

been selected as warrior of great power

in six months time you will be …

Uriah threw the note as he was clearly not a warrior at all.

If his bobble head toys could read the sheet that flew above them the would have seen the text of:

Those selected shall be brought to the tower of clouds for the next trial.

However, the golden text on the note separated from the paper and glowed burning the paper it was written on. The light moved like a snake and coiled itself onto Uriah's Left hand leaving a symbol of gold dragon fused with a bird.

Uriah sighed while looking at his left hand, shrugged and rolled onto the log the sleep and to digest his midday meal, dreaming of the next way to annoy another customer.