Chapter 3 - Her departure

She opened the doors to the dining room, and what greeted her was a large table with her family looking at her with smiles overflowing with love but a hit of worry.

Avy was always the baby of the family. She was born the youngest and had yet to receive her powers. This always worried her family; every past member of the Winter family had manifested their powers before reaching the age of 18. However, she was the first for that not to happen. With such a prominent family in the empire, they needed to be able to protect themselves, and within history, all descendants were able to do this. She was the first. But thinking about her dream last night, she might have awakened long ago, and the powers were just too much for her body to take on.

As she walked in, she smiled at her family and accepted the birthday wishes from her parents. She sat down next to her twin brother, across from her mom. Most days started like this, or at least holidays, when all members of the family were able to have time in the mornings. Once they sat down, the maids started to push out carts filled with food. They were filled with her and her brother's favourites. They both loved pancakes, but they did differ a little bit on their topping of choice. Avy liked her pancakes with strawberries. Dune, on the other hand, liked his pancakes with blueberries. But for everyone in the family, butter and maple syrup were always essential. Next to the pancakes was a blueberry, strawberry, and banana smoothie. Her family members all received their dishes, and they started to dig in.

The meal started with everyone being very quiet as everyone was enjoying their food. Most of the family members had diets they needed to stick to so their bodies could keep up with their training. So having a cheat meal was making everybody's day start great. Yet Avy was just picking at her food, not being able to enjoy it the way she usually would. Out of nowhere, she looked up and said, "I'm going to leave the house today." All her family members stopped eating and looked up at her. They looked into her eyes, and she got up and bolted to her bedroom.

Running into her bedroom and locking the door behind her, she heard footsteps running after her. Not having time to grab much, she grabbed a backpack and started filling it with gold coins and a few sets of training clothes. When she was done, she heard people knocking on the door and trying to push it open. She flung her window open, jumped on the tree outside, and started to climb down from the tree. Once down, she ran to the stables, passing by the knights and servants along the way. She grabbed the first horse she could see, making sure that it wasn't one of her family members, and jumped on its back. Urging the horse to go, she went around the back of the property and made sure nobody was catching up to her. She doesn't know why, but she feels like she needs time away from her family. She needs time to process what she saw last night, and she can't do it with her family worrying about her. At this moment, she was thankful that her family had placed a ban on anyone using magic against her, or she wouldn't be able to get away as she did.

After getting out of her family's property, she decided to go to the very edge of her parents' territory, a place where people rarely go, so that she would have the time away she needed. It was a small town that bordered the forest, but people rarely went there as the beasts had human-level intelligence and most of them kept to themselves. However, the town itself was peaceful, as beasts would rarely come out of the forest. It would take her at least 4 hours to get there, taking no breaks, so she estimated that she could at least make it to an inn by the time it got dark. That is if nothing unexpected happens along the way.