When the officer started barking orders to the soldiers the gaudy man, who seemed livid with anger about his treatment, joined the shouting party. The yells about who was the one in charge and others complaints started to really annoy me, and when it became clear they would not stop sreaming soon I snapped.

- @#$% it!

It seemed nobody was listening to me but that was better for what I was going to do. I concentrated on the mana scales directly under the skin around my cuffs, the scales where like a chainmail in their normal state, but concentrating some mana into them could make interlock the scales into a really rigid structures. Sure growing them into a growing wedge was going to tear part of my wrist's superficial skin, but it was a price I was willing to pay to end that nonsense.

While I was concentrating I remenbered the time I was finally able to came up with a functional design for the scales, the fact that in the end Ausas and Llanfil ended up shouting between themselves made me realise how similar that situation was.

Two years ago...

I was in a slump due to the fact I wasn't able to advance in the training, I was able to memorise everything Ausas and Llanfil told me, but remembering and understanding where two different things. For Ausas training only time and muscle memory would give fruits, but his most advanced tecniques were still unattainable. But what vexed me even more were my results under Llanfil magic training. I was able to grasp the way most of the magic worked, thanks to my various memories, but modifing or creating original magic was still a mirage for me.

So I was getting depressed about my failures, deep down I understood that I was expecting too much in too little time, but I couldn't help but to want to flip the metaphorical table and only indulge in the recreation of places and food of Ausas magical place.

What pulled me out of that dark time were the words of my mentors. "If a problem is too much to solve alone seek help, or if you want to do everything alone break down the work into small parts easier to do". "Always remenber your objective, why you're doing all of this, and center yourself into all the steps to fulfill it".

They gave me new way to think about my problems so I was greatful for having encountered them, the fact that their pep talk sometimes was taken from some of my memories discretited them a little but I didn't care. 

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

The fight between them took place when I told them my real intentions, trusting someone with my true desires never happened before, it all started pretty innocently. When I speaked about what I really wanted their reactions were the exact opposite and that was the spark that ignited the flame of all the shouting and some "light" blow.

A place to call Home, building a house into a nice place, finding a pet maybe a lover, that were all my desires for this new life. When Llanfil heared my wish she nodded to me while holding back tears, Ausas in another hand bursted laughing. I was almost expecting his reaction what I didn't expect was the murderous gaze that Llanfil gave him. The more he laughed the angrier she became, in the end they shouted at each other for hours. She was peeved about his lack of sensibility, he had a home, he couldn't understand the pain of loosing it. He rebuked her about how she was becoming too emotional thanks to all my memories.

It all ended like almost all lover's little quarrel do, they made peace and became even more disturbingly amorous than before. I came out of my slump by sheer will alone, I was also trying to ignore their couple behaviour, and immersing myself into training.

That flashback ended when the scales were finally ready to grow out and break the manacles, all the preparation took no more that few seconds and the situation was the same as before. Well not exactly the same, the toga woman that before was ignoring everything to examine my armour seemed flustered about the situation, but when she glaced in my direction she did a double take. I was finally able to see her face, at least part of it, she wore a circlet with attached a kind of visor that resembled a night goggle of Earth's military.

When she was staring at me the lenses of the visor started to glow blue and then she stood still for a couple of seconds, she had the same hair/feathers ensemble going on so I assumed she was a birdkin, her shout soon after confirmed my theory.

- AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

I stopped feeding mana to my mana scales, but leaved them ready to act any moment, and all the other inside the tent interrupted their actions to stare at her. She seemed unfazed by the stares and simply startes coming closer to me, her furious writing on her parchment didn't made me think of anything good. When she was finally a few steps from me the commander came out of his shock.

- What are you doing! Stay away from him!

The gaudy man also joined to reprive the woman actions.

- Why did you shout! What's happening?!

She answered the man question in, for me, a cryptic way and then started a barrage of questions of her own. 

- Don't you see, the mana signature is the same, the structure is far more complex but the mana is the same... You! Tell me the truth, where did you find the armour, where did you learn to a moagic so precisely layered, who are you, are you perhaps the one who build this?

Well she surely didn't lack enthusiasm into her passions...