The next few days passed through the family’s usual routine, though, everyone was much happier. Colby’s awakening had provided a big morale boost for the family. His father spent his days at the mine, his mother cared for the house and family.

Right now, Colby and Dana were walking down the street to the market, to sell their extra firewood.

Lately, their parents sent them to the market often, trying to get as many coins as they could scrounge up. They lived in Banrook, a small mining town in the mountains, in the West region of the Kingdom of Edrya. The market was lively, with merchants on the street advertising their wares, as people and horse-drawn carts clambered across. However, there was a notable subdued atmosphere hanging above everyone’s heads. The Kingdom was at war with the Balkish, of the Kingdom of Balkrya.

Though the front was to the far East, away from Banrook, many families had lost their sons to the war already, and times were hard. Food was costly and the nobles pushed the peasants to mine up as much iron as they could for the war effort, it was not unusual for people to work to death here.

But nevertheless, people still smiled as the duo passed by. Dana was a bit of a local celebrity, well known in the community. She was pretty, with freckled cheeks and long orange-blonde hair, though she was only 16, she already had many suitors. She was charismatic and kind, adored as the neighborhood ‘sweet pea’ by everyone. If she wasn’t so busy helping with the family, it is likely she would have already been married and beginning a family of her own, Colby looked up to her alot.

As they walked down the street they passed a pair of homeless kids, begging on the side of the road. Dana stopped and bent down, handing them a piece of bread from the sack on her side, before carrying on.

They eventually made it to the general store they were heading to, it was a hole-in-the-wall building, but was still more fleshed out than the various stands outside. As they walked through the door, a middle aged man behind the counter called out.

“Well if it isn’t young Dana and little Colby. How are you kids?”

The shop had a wooden interior with a assortment of goods lining various shelves.

“Hello Mr. Krikek. We’re here to sell some firewood.”

“More firewood? This will be the third time in as many days, isn’t it darling? Winter will be coming soon, will you have enough fire to get by?”

A flash of worry crossed Dana’s face, but she quickly covered it up.

“We’ll make it through, we always do.”

“Why do you need so much coin for, if I may ask?”

Dana smiled gently and patted Colby’s head.

“Ah, so it’s true then? The little boy has awakened?”

Colby piped up excitedly “It’s true! I can make fire in my hand!”

“Oh wow! That’s really something. Ya’know, being awakened is quite special. They say only 1 in 500 will ever have the capability to channel mana. Even fewer will ever gain enough skill to use it meaningfully.”

“That’s what we’re trying to get the money for… We want to get him a teacher, or perhaps send him off as an apprentice. He’s the first of our family to be awakened, and hopefully, just maybe he’ll be able to leave all of this behind and rise out of serfdom.” Dana said with a hopeful, yet bittersweet smile.

“I’ll never leave you behind!” Colby said, Dana just continued rubbing his head.

“I see, I see. That’s as good a cause as any. So how much wood did you bring in?” The shopkeep asked. Dana put both her bag of wood and the one Colby was carrying onto the counter.

As the shopkeep was tending to the wood, Colby saw a man in the corner of the shop. He had at first thought the shop was empty except for them, but the man was definitely there. Though, he looked odd. He had odd clothing, some kind of beige cape and fine hat. Maybe a noble? As Colby got closer to the man, the shopkeeper spoke up, grabbing Colby’s attention.

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After counting it out, Mr Krikek nodded then told them. “I’ll give you 15 otė for it.”

Dana looked shocked. “15, Sir? That’s quite a bit more than last time.”

Colby looked back to where the man was, only to find him gone. He blinked in surprise a few times, but hesitantly went back to the counter after looking around and not finding them.

“Yes, well this is some good quality wood and… Well, I know the money is going to be put to good use.” He winked.

Dana bowed her head slightly “Thank you so much!”

Mr Krikek laughed, “Hey, no problem. Come back anytime.”

“We will!” Dana said happily.

“And best of luck to you, young Colby!” The shopkeep called out as they exited the store. As they walked down the street, Colby looked up to Dana and asked “We need money?”

“Yes, if you’re going to learn to use your abilities, we need to find some way to teach you.”

“But, doesn’t Uncle Dredrig teach us?” Colby asked innocently.

“Uncle Dredrig is a smart man, but even he doesn’t know enough about magic to do that. We need to find you a proper teacher.”

Colby felt a little guilty at that. He was only 10, he spent his days helping around the house and doing mostly running jobs. Did he really have all that potential in him?

“Don’t misunderstand Colby. You awakening is a really great thing. For the first time, a member of the Cox family might be able to rise up out of serfdom! I know you can do it, but you’ll have to work hard, ok?”

“But what about you and mom, and dad? What about the twins?” Colby worriedly asked.

“Oh, don’t worry about us. We’ll make it through. In fact, you’ll be helping us alot if you succeed. The other villagers will look up to us if we are the family of a wizard, or scholar.” Dana brightly smiled.

They then walked together in amicable silence for a while when there was a commotion from a crowd gathered in the street.

“Scammer!” An angry man screamed

“Of course not sir, you simply guessed wrong.” A man behind a table said out loudly, for everyone to hear.

“Liar! I had my eye on that cup the whole time!”

Between the two men was a table, with a couple of wooden cups turned upside down on it. A sign next to the table said ‘shell game’

“Sir! I will not allow you to question my business practices! The ball was in a cup, and you chose the wrong cup!”

“Bastard! You won’t get away with this!” Just then some thuggish looking men picked up the dissident and dragged him away.

“Come now, Colby. We should go.” Dana looked a little hurried as she took his hand and started walking faster.

“What was that, sister?” Colby asked. But Dana didn’t respond. That’s when Colby noticed she looked a little unwell. Her eyes looked tired and her face was pale.

“Dana?” After walking a few more steps Dana fell to her knees and started coughing.

“Dana!” Colby hurriedly tried to help her, but he didn’t know what to do. Dana coughed up a little bit of blood onto the dirt. Colby started crying. “Dana!”