34 Dan [1]

Dan glanced at the back of Cage, 'What an interesting kid, I truly wonder what his compound magic will be. Whatever it is, it will surely be unique...'

Staring at nothing in particular, Dan said, "He's a lot like you... right, sis?"

Dan clutched a notebook that was stained red, It had been 8 years since he had lost his freedom. Though Dan didn't mind losing his freedom, thinking about how he had lost it made him become bitter with anger and grief. He tightened his grip around a black-edged dagger at his waist.

Exactly eight years, four months, and twelve days ago was when Dan had lost almost everything that mattered to him.

...

"Sis, look! That guy is using magic!"

On a hot summer day, a fourteen year old kid with blue hair pointed excitedly to a botanist watering a plant using a small stream of water coming from his finger.

Next to the blue haired kid stood an equally excited girl who also had long blue hair. These two kids were twins. As mentioned before, they both had blue hair. Their eyes were also a sky blue. If they didn't have different genders, then they would probably look almost the exact same.

The blue haired girl, who's name was Kandra, followed her brothers finger and found the botanist in his shop. "Wow! Quick! Write that down, write that down!"

Dan followed his sisters advice and in a cheap and tattered looking notebook, wrote down some scribbles describing the magic they saw.

They were both obsessed with magic, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them magic geeks. When they were younger they had laid witness to a fight between two mages who were both capable of using Tier 2 magic. The impression was so deep that despite nearly losing their lives from the aftershocks, they gained a deep appreciation of magic. From that appreciation, came obsession.

Kandra said triumphantly, "Now we are one step closer!"

The botanist noticed them. He smiled gently and waved to them, "Aspiring researchers, are we?"

Dan vigorously nodded, "Yeah, our dream is to discover every type of spell, skill, and magic!"

The botanist smiled mischievously, "Let me help you with that dream then..."

A small ball of water about the size of a water balloon formed at the tip of the botanists finger.

[Water Ball!]

The botanist promptly threw it at them.

Kandra and Dan quickly tried to scramble out of the way, "EEK!"

The sound of laughter could be heard around town as the botanist chased the two kids around while throwing balls of water.

They lived in a small town that only had a population of about 1,000. Everyone more or less knew each other's faces, so many lightly chuckled as the botanist played with the two kids. Most people in town were familiar with Dan and Kandra and their antics. Their antics involved watching and commentating anyone in the town who was able to use magic to some capacity.

Despite losing their parents at an early age they were still happy, and despite being poor, without even a place to call home, they still pursued their dream. Only the two of them knew how many notebooks they had filled with notes.

The town was a very tight knit community, so everyone supported them and tried to help them even if only a little bit. They would often give them food or, if they had extra time, play with them. They were offered the option to go to an orphanage, but they declined saying that they didn't want to be adopted.

The towns people were thankful for the two. Because of them, the town was a lot more lively. The atmosphere was very bright and everyone's mood was always happy.

After being chased around by the botanist for 15 minutes or so, the botanist said he needed to get back to work and said farewell.

"See you later!" Said Dan, as he waved good bye.

After they watched the botanist go back to his store, they walked back to where they walked to the edge of town.

They lived on the edge of town near a main road. While it was a little

far away, it couldn't be helped. They didn't have the money to buy or

rent a house, hence they lived in a tent. While it wasn't much, it gave

them a roof over their head and to protect their belongings from nature.

They only had one padded mat so they had to share, but it was better that way. The nights could get cold as it got closer to winter.

After fixing a blanket so it covered them, they fell asleep next to each other.

They spent two years, until they were fourteen, just goofing around and being kids. They chased their dream as days filled with happy memories went by.

Unfortunately, good things don't last forever.

After getting some food for the both of them, Dan returned to their tent. As he got within earshot, Dan called out to a medium sized tent and shouted, "Kandra, the nice lady from the bakery gave us some bread!"

Dan approached the tent and was about to part the entryway, but he abruptly stopped. He had stepped into a liquid that was a crimson red.

He immediately became worried for Kandra and thrust open the flaps to the tent.

What was inside could only be described as a tragic, wicked, and repulsive scene.

Kandra was slumped on the floor with her neck cut open. The perpetrator didn't even bother to take their weapon, it was still lodged in her neck.

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. Not even in death was she given peace. Her clothes were stripped and someone had clearly 'enjoyed' her. Dan had to hold down the urge to vomit, it was truly repulsive.

He froze and dropped the bag of bread as tears streamed down his eyes. The only person he truly cared about and his only remaining family, was killed. He couldn't even do anything about it.

Suppressing his grief, he resolved himself to enter. He didn't want to look at her in her last moments. He wrapped a blanket over her so she wasn't exposed and then ran back to find someone for help.

It didn't take long to find someone. The botanist happened to be passing by when he saw Dan in a distraught state.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" He asked.

Dan panted while tears flowed down from his face, "My sister... she was killed!"

The botanist quickly responded by telling someone else nearby to get the town elder. A murder was something the town elder needed to know about and in a community of 1,000, murder was not tolerated.

The botanist quickly followed after Dan.

Once arrived, Dan excused himself. He didn't want to see his sister in such a state again.

Upon seeing Kandra, the botanist's expression became twisted to an ugly one, "Why would they do this? And to a child no less! If I ever find who did this, I'll tear them limb from limb!"

They stood in silence as they waited for the village Elder to arrive. It took less than 5 minutes for an old man to come running at high speeds. The old man was the village Elder. He had brown eyes and gray hair with thick, wire-framed, glasses. He was very kind-hearted and had even offered to let Dan and Kandra temporarily live with him until they were old enough to be of-age.

As soon as he heard what had happened, he had ran over as fast as he could. He was at Stage Three so it hadn't taken him long.

When he arrived, he instantly ordered an investigation. The Elder removed the dagger and tossed it away, out of his sight. Following which, he scooped up the lifeless body of Kandra and then made his way to the cemetery.

A notebook stained red with blood fell out while everyone followed behind to say their goodbyes.

Dan picked it up. Ignoring the blood red paper, he flipped through and realized it was one of their observation notebooks. He clutched it in his palm, refusing to let go.

After arriving at the cemetery, The town Elder placed Kandra onto the ground.

[Cycle of Life!]

The earth, like it had turned into quicksand, it slowly swallowed Kandra's body and brought it to the grasps of the earth to be laid at rest.

No one said a word throughout the entire ceremony out of sadness and respect.

A month went by, and the culprit was never found.

The perpetrator, for whatever reason, had taken all of their notebooks except the one that Kandra had dropped.

With watery eyes, Dan said, "Even when you were going to die, you refused to give up and got the last laugh…"

Dan stood at the edge of a river, staring at the water passing by.

He abruptly grabbed the red notebook and in frustration, yelled to the sky. "FUCK!!!"

He ran to the edge of the riverbank and prepared to perform a running throw, but abruptly stopped.

He fell to his knees, 'why did you have to die… we still have so much left to discover…'

For an hour he sat there, wallowing in his sadness.

Before he knew it, evening had arrived.

BOOM!

'What was that!?'

The sound of an explosion rang across the land. Dan spun around to find the source.

He looked back to the town and saw smoke rising from it. The evening sky was lit up a bright red-orange from the town that was on fire.

The town was under attack.