Bal.

I should have known that this balakash would be waiting. He saw this route last time and he’s anything but stupid.

Bal.

Ah, at least it’s a sunny day with the kites circling high above in the sky and the clouds slowly drifting. Though the clouds seem as if they’re milling around so that they too could see the sad spectacle of a boy being pummeled by a group of unruly lads led by a vicious-looking red-haired brute of a specimen. Sadly, the boy in question?

Me.

“Are you sure you didn’t get any money, eh?” said the hulking brute as he brushed his hair out of his face revealing a face in its teens.

“Your parents spending on those *ptooey* books again for you? Do they think that it’ll make you smarter? I would say you need them smarts boy, seeing how you tried to trick us by taking another route”

Kick, Punch, Slap.

“Come on, you haven’t fainted, have you? The fun hasn’t even started yet”

Yanking cruelly on the long hair covering the boy’s face, the brute pulled him up and under the bright sun revealed the deep-set empty looking black eyes of the boy.

Unnerved as always by those eyes, Harold the brute, curls his fingers into a fist and with a thunderous sound, smashes it into the boy’s face.

Even as he goes flying backward from the punch, the apathy in the boy’s eyes doesn’t change. The sheer disdain for what is occurring to him and the people who are the cause of it is what drives Harold to madness and what causes these repeated beatings.

Why madness you might ask?

What else is it but madness when you dare to beat up the son of the reigning count in his own county?

Granted the boy might be the younger son, but still, the audacity of the action would have led to hanging in any other place in the Kingdom of Leon.

But the county of the Draykes was led by Count Callum Drayke, a believer that a man must stand up for himself, especially if that man, in particular, was his own flesh and blood.

This doesn’t mean that he won’t step in and uphold justice, but he would not dirty his moniker of Callum the Peaceful and intervene in between a fight amongst children.

All this the boy knew. All this he accepted. All this he raged at. In the beginning that is. When the cuts, bruises, and humiliation were humbling for him. When the blood that seeped out between his fingers as he clutched his face could not be answered in kind.

Now though, it was just another part of life to him.

Thud. The boy's body lands on the ground and skids for a foot or two.

This was the continent of Protos, the blessed land. Blessed, for the inhabitants of the land were gifted with extraordinary strength, agility, endurance, and stamina.

There were exceptions to this, exceptions such as the boy who was shakily getting to his feet, wiping the blood flowing out of his nose.

“Boy, you’re quite tough aren’t you? I reckon we’ll need quite some time to ensure that your toughness is beaten out of you. Isn’t that right lads?” said Harold as the group of teens surrounding him began jeering at the boy.

Smirking, the brute and his gang began advancing towards the boy only to hear a piercing scream that stopped them in their tracks.

“HAROLD, you balakash, you take one more step and I’ll make sure you never take another”

The boy stiffened up as soon as he heard those words and as he turned he saw a girl, her face set in stern lines that are radiating anger, marching towards them while her right hand played with a sword pommel, as though itching to draw it and make short work of the bullies.

Raising his hands, Harold slowly begins to back away while saying, “Alessia, This is a misunderstanding. We were just sparring, isn’t that right, boy?”

Glaring coldly at Harold, The girl, Alessia said, “Is that right. Then I presume you wouldn’t mind a spar with me?”

“Hahahaha, I’m tired from the spar just now, but maybe I’ll take you up on the offer later.'' Saying this, Harold, trying to hold on to his dignity, made his escape, following after his group who had already fled as soon as they heard Alessia’s Scream.

“The day you do will be the day that every bone in your body is broken” muttered Alessia under her breath as she whirled around and ran to where the boy stood.

“Are you alright?” She asked with concern in her voice.

The boy wipes more blood off his face, looks at his dirtied tunic and ripped trousers, looks to the side for the shoe that had come off when he was sent flying, then turns around reluctantly and says “I’m fine”

The girl who was following his actions raises an eyebrow which quivers for a second before saying “I’m sorry, I couldn’t come earlier.”

“Not your Fault Alessia. I’m the one who ran off. I thought I could avoid them but they found me.”

Taking part of her tunic in her hand, she grabbed the boy and began to clean him up as he squirmed under her grip.

“Alessia, I can do this myself, let go!”

Ignoring his protests, she continued her ministrations until satisfied and then let go of a significantly better-looking boy than before.

Examining him closely, she took note of his pale white skin, the long aquiline nose, the sword-like eyebrows, the feminine eyelashes, and the terrifying pools of darkness that were his eyes.

Seemingly conscious of her gaze, the eyelashes of the boy came down to cover the darkness and when they opened, they were back to how they usually looked, full of warmth. But they only looked like that when they saw Alessia or his family.

“Alessia. Alessia!” Rapping his knuckles against the forehead of the girl, he knocked her out of the daze she was in.

Embarrassed, She looked away and her gaze was drawn to the blood that still stained the tiled roads of Draconis city.

She looked at the boy with a serious expression and said “Listen, you need to become stronger. I can teach you how to fight and fight well at that.”

Shrugging the boy said “Alessia, I’m 6 years old right now. Neither do I have any strength, neither do I have any agility, neither do I have any Stamina. You on the other hand are a prodigy. You’ve awakened your warforce at 8 and now at 10, you’re already a squire. You already don’t have any time and on top of that, you keep saving me from Harold. I can’t accept more than this from you”

Pursing her lips, she said “I will always have time for you. As for Harold, he’ll be a squire in 3 years, I’ll challenge him fairly then and make sure he won’t be able to move for at least a year” and illustrated it by flexing her arm and throwing a few punches in the air.

Laughing, the boy said “I don’t doubt it and I would love to have the pleasure of seeing it but leave him to me when I turn 10 and awaken my warforce. For now, let’s go home aye?”

Smiling, Alessia patted him on the shoulder and dusted him off one last time, before turning to look at the magnificent Castle on the hill that overlooked the city and said “Hey, you know how you said, you don’t have any strength, agility, or stamina and that I’m a prodigy?”

“Yeah?”

“I might be a prodigy, but you’re going to shine brighter than both me and the stars and maybe even the sun.”

“Why?”

“Because you are Faustus Drayke”

He smiled.