Chapter 2 - Blacksmith's Aprentice

On Monday morning Theo went straight to Ray's shop to get there before dawn, he skipped the stone and got it to hop 4 times, 'a great way to start the day, after a rough week, things were looking up' he thought as he sprinted to Ray's.

When he got to Ray's he looked at Theo and said with a smirk "looking sharp boy, glad to see you being on time, let's start the day, go prepare the fire"

"All right let's go!"

After working for half the day, things died down a little, and they took a break, this was his first break in 6 days, so he seized the opportunity and took out the chain to ask him about it.

"Hey, Ray, do you know what this is?"

He rolled his eyes and said, "more stupid questions boy?" His eyes widened when he saw the chain and rushed over and grabbed it, "where did you get this?" 'This chain must be made of Verminium Ray thought and pondered

"I found it," said Theo enthusiastically

"This is a chain made of Verminium, it's a special metal that can work as an enhancer but it has many properties they use for the highest of items," He said as he caressed the chain in his hand.

"Will it help me awaken?" I asked expectantly

Ray thought for a second before answering "not sure kid, but you should keep this close to you and take care of it, if you can figure out its secrets I'm sure it'll be of incredible importance to you" he said as he slowly leaned his hand toward Theo, he grabbed the chain but had to yank it out of his hand as he didn't want to let go.

'I should probably double-check some information on that chain' Ray thought as he spoke "All right kid, we made some good progress today, you can go home early today"

"Awesome, thank you, and see you tomorrow!" Theo quickly ran out and didn't give him a chance to change his mind.

'Wow I have a Verminium chain, not even nobles get these, I am lucky today is a 4 skip day'. Theo thought as he ran out.

As Theo was walking home he stopped at a corner when he spotted some kids pushing a girl around, 3 kids had a basket and were keeping it away from the girl while pushing her, two of them looked around his age but the big one was Pete a 16-year-old bully that would spend his days seeing who he could terrorize.

Theo had always despised bullies he felt a rage and suddenly ran out and pushed him and yelled "give it back already and leave her alone!" He just did it on instinct, both kids turned around to face him, Pete quickly got up and grabbed him, "what do you think you're doing? Getting a little brave don't you think?"

"Hey!, leave her alone!" When Theo said that, Pete quickly turned and gave him a big punch in his stomach, Theo was completely cut off guard, he felt a strong pressure and dropped to the floor gasping for air.

"you should think before you do something stupid next time, grab him!" said Peter and the other two boys went to get Theo.

Theo was picked up and held by the two boys, Peter was sneering, "this will teach you not to interfere" Peter got ready to hit him again.

As Theo tried to brace for the punches he was about to receive he suddenly felt that everything started to slow down, he got the urge to drop and roll right, and as he did so, the boy on his right fell with him while the one on the left let go, Peter went in with his punch but hit his friend instead of Theo, after rolling Theo did a drop sliding kick on Peter's back leg getting him off balance, Theo got up quickly and gave one strong and quick jab to Peters's ribs, Peter dropped to the ground screaming in pain.

After Theo did all that everything went came back, the two boys grabbed him again and pinned him to the floor, Peter got up even angrier and started punching Theo in the face, they let him go and Theo just lay on the floor, next thing he saw Peter's boot coming up hitting him on the chin, then he blacked out.

"Are you ok?" Said the girl to Theo as he opened his eyes and saw this very pretty red-headed girl with blue eyes looking at him with a worried look.

"Sure, I'm all set for round two," Theo said jokingly trying to smile and slowly sitting up.

"Thanks for trying to help, but you shouldn't be so reckless, he would have left me alone and left," She said while helping him stand up

"Yeah, sorry, but I just went in there without thinking, I just couldn't stand him pushing you around, sorry if I caused bigger problems"

"It's ok, I'm Sarah," she said while holding her hand out

"I'm Theo," he said and shook Sarah's hand.

"I know who you are, you're healer Ben's son," she said with a slight smile.

Theo looked at her a little embarrassed and nodded he smiled and said, "so where were you going, Sarah?"

"I was bringing home some ingredients for my grandma, she's making me a special supper," she said perkily

"What's she making you? Do you need help?" Theo asked curiously.

"My favorite, goat stew, you've already helped me enough, I gotta go but see you around, and thank you!" She said as she ran off

Theo nodded and waved goodbye, he started walking home and thought about that weird feeling he got just before he got punched and kicked, everything slowed down and it was like he knew what to do and when to do it, 'good thing my father is a healer' he thought

He got home and played around with Lucy then they had dinner, that night he would stare at his chain, seeing that it had some markings on the links wondering what they meant, and thinking about that feeling he had.

The next day he skipped the rock and bounced it twice so he thought it'll probably be a neutral day and could go either way.

He worked at Ray's and did business as usual, on his way home he saw Sarah standing before the bridge.

She waved at him and said with a big smile "hey Theo, sorry I ran out yesterday, but I just wanted to thank you again, and as a gift, I brought you some goat stew" 'I hope he likes it' she thought while slightly blushing.

"Wow, thank you so much, you didn't have to do that," Theo said smiling.

"It's nothing, my grandma told me to bring you some, you're going to love it and it'll make you feel better"

Theo took the bag and thanked her again, she grinned and ran off waving goodbye,

When Theo got home he decided to try a bit of the stew, it was delicious, so maybe it should have been 3 skips, he thought.

Three days later he was leaving for Ray's and as Theo skipped the rock, this time it didn't skip it just sank as soon as he threw it, he'd been doing this for a few years, and it never just sinks when he threw one, this gave him a real uneasy feeling.

As he got to Ray's Theo started working on the bellows, as he was doing that a sudden strong breeze came in, and again it was as if the world slowed down, a huge burst of flame exploded into him he ducked quickly, and covered himself to the left, because he slightly hesitated he was a step late in turning to the left and the flame that came his way slightly grazed his arm, if he'd stayed standing up he would have been badly burnt, but being a step late part of my right hand and forearm got stung, he felt a very quick cool sensation followed by a big stinging and throbbing pain.

Ray shot up and hurried to him, "you ok kid?, Those breezes can be dangerous, you have good reflexes, probably saved your ugly face by ducking so quickly" he said with a forced smile

He helped Theo up and put on some weird custard-looking thing and put it on, "Trust me, kid, keep that on until it evaporates it'll help you big time, now go home so your father can finish healing that, and rest a couple of days I'll see you then"

It did feel better with that yellow thing on Theo's arm but it still hurt, as he was getting home Theo saw his mom and dad talking to someone in the dining room, Ben stood up and asked: "what's wrong son?" Theo explained what happened and showed him his arm, Ben excused himself and took him to his office.

"What happened Theo, did you get careless? I won't always be there to take care of things you gotta be more careful" he said with a very worried look on his face.

Then a yellow circle with two rims appeared on his palm and Theo's arm started to heal, a few seconds later it was as good as new.

"It was just this weird breeze that came in, I'm sorry Dad," Theo said apologetically.

" It's fine son, just try and be more careful," Ben said.

"Is everything ok?" Theo said a little worried

He looked at him and said, "there's been a call to arms, apparently there's been a sighting of fleets near Lunas Eastern Coast, they don't know who it is yet, so the king is probably being cautious".

Theo looked at him with extreme worry, now he understood why he was scolding him, Ben will have to go, a call to arms means every household must contribute one bodied abled person to the capital for training and possibly war, it was a state of high alert.

"Dad, you can't, because you're a healer if we go to war you'll have to be on the frontlines supporting the main attack force!" Theo said with tears in his eyes.

"Don't worry Theo, we don't know if we're going to war yet, this happened once when you were 6 and I was only gone for a week because it was nothing, it's just a precaution" He held Theo trying to console him.

'It's not fair that my dad has to go, I'm not just scared for myself, but Thomas, Edward, Lucy, and Mom, we all need him, and if there is a war the healers are very vulnerable'.

Theo went to bed thinking, 'the rule is one abled-bodied person, if I beat my dad to it he can stay, and because I'm not awakened I'll get safe jobs, doing grunt work like preparing materials, weapons, making food, it's a perfect plan, I'll just go in his place, today was a sinker, just a gray day, probably the worst so far'.