4 The Beginning

Waking up in a bed of leaves I jumped up and looked at the sky, trying to find what had woken me up. It was mid-day, and the sun was shining through the canopy of trees. Turning around to face the village I saw a girl standing there at the gates who looked to be about a year younger than me.

"Are you coming or what?" Aris yelled.

"Yeah, I'm coming, just give me a second!" I yelled back, bending down to pick up a wooden stick that was three fourths my height. infusing a swirl of air magic into my boots, I jumped up into the air and plucked my hanging hat off of the tree that was directly above me.

Starting to walk towards the village I noticed something that struck me as odd, there seemed to not be and guards on duty, or what passed for guards in any case. The adults of the village usually guarded the gate on turn, not needing a dedicated guard due to the peaceful nature of our area other than wild beasts casually wandering to close to our village.

"We're going to be late! C'mon!" Aris yelled again.

Picking up the pace I caught up to her at the gate and we headed through. The gate was made of cheap, faulty steel, and was brown with rust, while our walls that were constructed around our small settlement was brown oak wood that was cured by the local woodcutter. In other words, lots of brown.

The gate that we entered in was the East gate, and we quickly arrived at the town center to see a crowd of people, what seemed to be everyone that lived in the village. Standing on my tippy-toes to try and see what was going on, I asked Aris what was happening, since she was the mayors daughter she should have known.

"I'm not sure, but I hear that the kings guard were going from village to village in the kingdom looking for candidate's to admit into the royal capital as the kingdoms next generation of warriors and scholars".

If this was true then this was what Jason had been waiting for as long as he could remember. They only recruited people every 2 to 5 years, and only people from the age of 10 to 17 could be drafted into the academy. This was his lucky break as he was currently 16, the perfect age to gain admittance.

"All right, all right. We will now list all of the people who are eligible for participating in the test!" a mans deep voice reverberated through the market square.

From behind someone but there hands on our backs and nudged us forward. Looking back, I realized that it was the mayor of the village, Eeorn, Aris's father. Sadly his wife, Aris's mother, died a year ago when a group of traveling adventurers came through and started some trouble. She was caught up in the middle of it and killed her on accident. Eeorn, out of anger, killed them in a fight, leveling an acre of forest in the process. Eeorn was said to be a retired noble of the Capital, and no one doubted that due to his strength in both diplomacy and close combat. what no one understood however was why he was living in the River Flats instead of someplace more suited to his former position.

"Come on kids, move to the front where you can see what is going on" he smiled down at us and spoke in a quiet tone.

Maneuvering through the crowd we reached the front where we could here the man listing a bunch of names.

"Eeorn, I missed the beginning of their list, did they say either of our names yet?" I asked. It was a well known perk of ascending through the mage ranks that it also increased yours senses ten-fold.

"No, they have yet to say either of your names".

"Bale, Chad, Franz, Glade, Aris" The man said before going quiet.

"These are the people who are of the age and are qualified to take the test.

I looked around in confusion. For some strange reason it seemed that my name was not on the list. Apparently Aris and Eeorn also noticed the strange coincidence. As I stepped forward, Eeorn but his hand on my shoulder to hold me back and stepped forward in my place. Taking a knee he bowed to the royal knights.

"I am sorry to bother you, Knights of the realm, but might I ask if there was a mistake? There is another child by the name of Jayson Bloodswrite that was not on the list. he is both our villages most talented child then it comes to magic, but also is of the age of 16, so he should be able to enter into the trials."

Stepping forward what seemed to be a good moment, I followed his lead by also taking a knee, one step behind him.

"This is quite a strange turn of events. Not only was out list not up to snuff for the first time in 30 decades, but I get to meet the great Eeorn in the flesh!" The man that was listing peoples names bellowed with a hearty laugh.

"Rise, Mayor Eeorn, retired captain of the royal nights."

Standing up, Eeorn shook his had and scoffed.

"Thankyou, but I no longer live that life, there is no need for old formalities."

The announcer then ruined his attention to me after the formalities were out of the way and had me rise and walk up to him. For an excruciatingly long minute we stood there with our gases locked as if he was trying to find out something from me through my eyes.

"I recognize that name, but I strangely do not remember from where. For some it pains me to see you in this state and what your family has become, and it pains me even more not to be able to remember why I feel this way. Might you tell me, have you lived in this village your hole life?"

With a puzzled look I shook my head in the negative, I had in fact not lived in the River Flats for my whole life, but instead came to here at a young age. It had always been a question in the back of my mind as to why I couldn't remember my past life, but every time I thought about it, a reading pain spread through the back of my head.

"I haven't lived here my whole life, but sadly I cannot answer you as I myself do not have the answers to what my name means or even who I was before coming to this place. When I try to think about it all that happens is a burning sharp pain in the back of my head."

The royal knight looked puzzled at me, before mumbling under his breath "mind magic? it is every rare but if this boy is someone that was not meant to be discovered, and is somehow special, then it would explain why we have no records of him, and would also explain why someone would go through the troubles of binding his memory."

With a glint in his eye the man drew a dagger and threw it at Jason's face with one smooth movement. Jumping to side, Jason grabbed the dagger out of the air and threw it back at him, infusing wind essence into it to make it go faster than the speed of sound. He then cast matter shadow on it to create a replica in the knives shadow.

To his surprise the man easily caught the dagger out of the air, and the second one bounced off his skin harmlessly.

The mans mouth dropped open in shock when he realized what happened and started to laugh heartily.

'Boy, I don't know who you are, but you should have no problems passing this test."

Picking up the knife he bent it to show me that it was but a rubber training knife. It would leave a bruise but nothing more. The man was lucky however because he underestimated me and thought that I wouldn't react, let alone retaliate with magic.

What the man didn't know was that his impression of him was too high, he had in fact pushed his body to the brink with the magic that he had cast and was already exhausted to the point of almost passing out. while he could hast magic, and in fact had huge talent in controlling energy of any kind, he had the unlucky coincidence of a measly puddle of magic compared to most peoples lakes.