I wake up to the early winter sunshine. I look out my round window and notice it's still early in the morning. Trying and failing to fall back asleep I decided to start my training a bit earlier than usual. I get myself dressed in warm clothing and head out to the back of our house. I walked out to the small red shed to get my wooden sword and a bag containing grain and different seeds. I carry the heavy bag to a small chicken coop. I open its hatch.

"One, two, three, four, five, six and ...seven." I say as I take out the dead chicken from the coop and pour some of the bag’s contents into the coop.

"Seems that time got to you Bertrude." I say to the lifeless chicken corpse laying it down in the fireplace and starting a small fire to burn the corpse. 

I try to ignore the smell from the fire as I swing my sword. I get faster with each swing. From swinging downwards, I use the momentum to spin my body and slash around myself. Using every movement to build on the next. Switching my stance for every move, switching every time I go from thick snow under my feet, to frost-covered grass. Trying to find a way to swing my sword through every possible situation.

It's been roughly one month since I started to help my father hunt the creatures of the forest, and about six months now since I started my training. So maybe I should start to think about the tasks?

I stop for a moment, and I take a breath. 

"Let's try." I say out loud.

I start to swing my sword imagining fighting one of the humming beasts. I focus on not using all of my energy at once and having someone to fight. I swing and move my body, avoiding the imaginary attacks from my imaginary opponent. I progress from slower heavier swings to faster ones. trying to keep the same force. I start to feel my body swing and react on its own. I start to feel like I could probably continue for an entire day if I keep on going like this. With this rush of confidence, I make more complex movements. I start to feel great until the moment when my foot slips and I fall face first down to the ground. 

As I get myself up from the ground, I hear the door to the house creek open as my mother steps out. 

"Making breakfast?" She asks jokingly referring to the burning fireplace and the awful smell. 

"Bertrude died. I did what you told me to do if it happened." I tell her.

"Oh. Well, she was an old hen." My mother says leaning against the door. 

"So, were you just that excited to train today or?" 

"I couldn't sleep so I decided to start early" I told her.

"Okay, oh and I was going to ask. What about I take you down into Berkton again? It’s been a while since you were there, and I think you need some sort of reward for keeping on with the training for so long." She says. 

"Re-really? I can go down again?" 

"Well, I was going down to visit leave this month's batch to Henry today. So, I thought I could bring you down. Furthermore, you only saw the market last time." My mother says, smiling. 

"I was thinking of leaving after breakfast so you can keep going until your father wakes up and then we can go after we eat." She tells me.

After finishing up and eating, me and mother started our departure to Berkton. The sun's bright rays almost blind me as they reflect off the snow's white surface. Walking through the winding paths of the forest feels harder now that snow has fallen. Even if I wore a thick fur coat alongside thick fur boots, I still felt the cold touch of the winter snow. 

As we start to near the edge of the forest, I pull up my hood to hide my Giant features, however, my mother turns to me and says.

"Unfortunately, that won't work anymore. Since your eyes have started to develop more, it makes the hood useless to hide your eyes. But of course, I have countermeasures. Do you have that necklace that Madeline gave you?" 

I shake my head. 

"No, it’s in the study at home. Should I have brought it?" I ask.

"No, it’s fine. We can use that some other time." My mother says, letting out a small sigh. 

She then reaches for something in the pocket of her coat. 

"You can use this for now." She says pulling out a pair of glasses that appear to be heavily tinted. 

She then puts the glasses on her face, and I notice it appears impossible to see her eyes through them. She then hands them to me. As I put them on it gets harder for me to see but after my eyes adjust, I can see clearly. 

"Then let us get going." My mother says. 

We walk through Berkton's market and stop by the fisherman's dream. 

"Well if it isn’t Miranda! Oh, and hello again Adam." Henry says as we enter his store.

When we enter, we are quickly met by the glaring eyes of a man dressed in a fine purple vest with silver engravings running around his collar, a withe tuniv underneath and similar purple pants. The man radiated pride by just standing there, in fact, everything from his great posture to the unimpressed look in his eyes gave off a feeling of superiority. He kept his hands on a cane that seemed to be made out of oak. The cane itself has strange carvings running from its end to its top where a large ruby is attached. 

Next to the man is a boy that appeared to be around my age. Unlike the man next to him, the boy didn't appear as remarkable. He was wearing similar clothes to the man, but his were more "flashy". His was embroidered with golden patterns that ran down from his collar to his feet. In addition to all of that, the boy appeared to be a bit more on the chubbier side, unlike the man whose broad build showed from his fine clothing. 

"Oh, my apologies Von Pitwell. These here are some of my suppliers, and now that they are here, I could start on the production of the product your nephew wished for." Henry said to the well-dressed man. 

"Very well. No need to haste." The man says, his voice deep and tired. 

"Come now Eric. Let the man work." The man says to the boy as he begins to walk towards the door. 

"But my toy!" The boy named Eric cries out. His voice loud and high in pitch. 

"If you’d ask me, you already have too many toys, so I don’t see why my brother insists on giving you more." The man replies, annoyed. 

As they pass us, the man looks at us and says. 

"Good day." 

After that, the two leave the store. 

"Looks like someone got his hands busy." Mother teases Henry. 

"Oh, you don’t even want to know.." Henry says with a tired laugh.

While my mother starts to unload the wooden figures and molds that my father made, Henry asks me.

"So, how’s that puzzle I gave you going?"

"Well, I haven’t made much progress. It's pretty tricky." I respond. 

"Well, I'm not surprised. Since the man who made it, Manfred Von Wilhelm, stated it was his hardest puzzle yet. In fact, none has been able to solve it yet." Henry tells me. 

"Then how am I supposed to solve it if none has done it yet?" I ask.

"Maybe you will be lucky enough?" Henry says with a laugh. 

When mother finishes unloading all of the supplies, we leave Henry and continue through Berkton. The main road that we were walking on starts to split up into smaller paths that would take one to different parts of the small town. I followed my mother not wanting to get lost. 

As we walked the sound of clashing metal grew louder and louder until we arrived next to a large courtyard where two people seemed to be sparing. 

The one closest to us was a girl that seemed to be around my height. She held a longer curved sword in her right hand and a smaller shield mounted on her left arm. She wore a short purple cape over a beige linen shirt, which trailed after her as she dodged the attacks from the shorter dark haired boy in front of her. The boy, who wielded a thinner rapier-like sword, thrust his blade in rapid motion trying to hit the white-haired girl. However, none of his attacks hit. She simply dodged them as if they weren't even there. 

After dodging another attack, she jumped back, and in a flash flew forward and slashed the black-haired boy. The boy quickly moved his sword to parry her attack. Leaving her exposed he takes the opportunity to attack, but she seems to have predicted it since she quickly moves her left arm to use her shield to block his attack. The girl then jumps back to gather some distance, but her opponent quickly closes the distance to make another attack. They continue their fight with high speed attacks from one and slower counterattacks from the other. 

"She’s fast." I say.

"Well, she seems to use a fighting style that focuses on speed." My mother tells me. 

"So, there are different fighting styles?" I ask.

"Yes, many in fact. While all of them are made up of three main styles." My mother explains.

"The one we are training you in is called adaption, where you learn to predict your opponent’s moves, and learn to adapt to different scenarios, fighting styles and weather. The other one that girl seems to use is based on the one called speed. As its name suggests, it focuses on being faster than your opponent, and then there is Templar, where you focus on having complete control over the battlefield." My mother explains.

I stand there amazed at the speed and precision of the white haired girl fighting. 

"Oh, and what is that? That cape, why does she have one and not the other?" I ask.

"That’s the mark of her nobility." Mother says. 

"Nobility? Like the kings?" I ask getting more excited at the thought of her being related to one of the kings.

"No, not quite. The nobles are people who own a lot of land and gain income from it. The reason why they are called nobles is just because they wanted to seem close to the kings. They use their money and rank to seem better than everyone else." My mom tells me. 

"However, some nobles aren't as stuck up as the rest. Some of them are actively looking down on nobility for their ego. Like the man we saw at Henry's store." 

"The tall man with the cane?" I ask.

"Indeed. He is Alfred Von Pitwell. He is a retired guard of one of the kings. I think it was the Queen of roaring skies that he assisted." My mother tells me. 

"So, there is someone who worked for one of the kings here in Berkton?" I asked, my excitement renewed by hearing this.

"Well, no, sadly it's his brother... Ferdinand Von Pitwell who decided to live here." My mother says, almost disgusted. 

"He is the complete opposite of Alfred. He only thinks of eating drinking and fulfilling his lustful desires." My mother says a bit more hushed but with the same level of disgust. 

"Lustful?" I ask, confused as to what my mother meant.

"Eh... that’s a grownup word... don't mention it to your father please." 

We wandered on and saw the old buildings of Berkton, the buildings were painted in dull colors with ivy starting to grow on the sides. A sweet smell fills the air as we walk. We follow it to a small bakery. Walking in the sweet smell becomes stronger and a petite woman with big fluffy brown hair, and shining blue eyes greets us.

"Well good-day my name is Rosette, what could I help you with." She asks, her voice smooth and caring.

In front of her stands a paper sheet containing the names of her products and their prices. 

"Oh sorry, we have no way to pay with these prices." My mother says.

"Oh no, don’t worry. the pricing is mostly in case someone willing to pay that much shows up." Rosette says. 

"Well, well if that’s the case. We could take two vanilla puffs" Mother says. 

"That would be 40 Ouras." Rosette says giving us the pastries. 

It’s a piece of sweetbread with some sort of vanilla flavored cream. I take a bite. The sweet flavors swirl around creating a magnificent taste like none other. 

"It’s delicious." I tell the woman.

"Well, I'm glad you liked it young man. Return whenever you want." Rosette says as we leave.