Corwin barely recognised the kid. His name was Dalton, and Corwin didn't think that he'd ever heard him speak in class-except to back up Brady.
"Nice to see you again, Corwin. We really missed you! Why did you disappear?" He asked with undisguised glee on his face.
Corwin looked around, for a possible escape route. Seeing none, he focused his full attention on Dalton.
"Yeah, I missed you as well." He said, in a smile that he wasn't feeling.
With that, Dalton's grin stretched even wider.
"Well, that's fortunate!" He exclaimed. "I was just thinking that we needed to catch up- what say you and I come to meet some old friends?"
"Look, I would love to on any other day, except I'm a little busy at the moment," Corwin replied tersely.
So far so good. If he could just convince Dalton that they could meet another day, then he could avoid him again.
But then the door opened.
"Don't forget about your test tomorrow, Corwin. You've got no excuses this time." Miss Morgan reminded him as she stepped out of her house.
Dalton looked as if his birthday had come early.
"Corwin, you're getting lessons?" He asked, feigning curiosity while trying to hold back his obvious mirth. Well, then why don't you let my friends and I assist you in a sort of practical lesson?"
Miss Morgan stepped back in surprise when she saw that Corwin wasn't alone. Quickly recovering, she tried to give Corwin an excuse.
"Dalton, you'll have to forgive Corwin today. I asked him to go and collect me some herbs in the forest- I'm sure he'd love to catch up with you at a later date."
"That's no worries Teach; I'm sure that I can give an old buddy a hand, especially one I haven't seen in so long!" Dalton jovially replied.
"Actually I think-" Miss Morgan tried to reason with Dalton before Corwin shook his head at her. There was no need to involve her in this. If she was seen to take his side, then that would be all the excuse that some villagers would need to ostracise her from the village.
"It's fine, I'm sure that the two of us will get the job done in no time," Corwin said weakly.
"Exactly. In no time at all." grinned Dalton.
* * *
The two kept up pretences until they reach the edge of the forest, out of sight of miss Morgan's house.
"Alright, do we have to do this?" he asked Dalton.
"Whatever could you mean?" smirked Dalton with that smarmy grin still on his face.
"Cut it out. We do this now, or we both walk away." Corwin warned, subtly lowering his centre of gravity and bending his knees.
"Ah, I see the foreigner's child now has a bit of fire in him! I guess that's for the best. You wouldn't be very good practice for me if you were to just lie down and give up."
Dalton casually crossed his arms behind his back.
"But you know, for all this talking, I think you're one that'll be wanting to hurry up and start this. 'Cos my mates are gonna come searching for me pretty soon- I only went out to get a few twigs and sticks. Won't that be a fun reunion?"
Great, now he had a time limit. Dalton didn't have any reason to lie and wanted to take him out all on his own anyway. This was going to have to be all out from the start.
Wasting no further time, Corwin launched himself at Dalton, aiming to disable him before he could actualise his element.
Unfortunately, Dalton was one step ahead of him, whipping out his arms from behind his back. Quickly he then struck the two Flintstones in his hands together to create a spark, causing Corwin to halt his charge and jump back.
All weavers required an element to manipulate. Actualising the element, bringing it into reality through the soul, required a little bit of time. This time could be reduced through constant training and practice, however, in the beginning, it was quite slow. This is why most weavers used ignition devices.
Ignition devices were small samples of the weaver's preferred element, which could then be developed and manipulated immediately. Elements from the soul would always overpower naturally occurring ones, and with proper training, actualising an element would eventually be faster than using a device. However, although Corwin knew this from his lessons with Miss Morgan, there was little he could do to take advantage of this information.
Using his left hand, Dalton developed the spark into a ball of fire a little smaller than a loaf of bread. Letting it hover above his outstretched hand he smirked at Corwin.
A fire weaver was the worst matchup for him, Corwin grimly acknowledged. A water weaver would have to develop his element enough to be able to encircle him before they could do anything threatening. A wind weaver would have to circulate the wind around his body in addition to actualising it before it could do any damage.
Fire weavers, on the other hand, could simply create a small spark, throw a fireball, make another one, and then continue the cycle as long as he had an ignition device. Otherwise, he would have to actualise the element every time before he shot. This was why most untrained folk tended to focus on fire, Miss Morgan had said, because of its simplicity and speed.
Corwin reevaluated his plan. Since Dalton already had his element ready, there was no way to easily disable him. But he had to get in close, otherwise, he really was going to be moving target practice. for him.
He started to slowly approach him but was stopped in his tracks when Dalton laughed.
"Do you really think that it's going to be that easy? That I'm just going to throw fireballs at you? Guess I really expected too much from a foreigner who can't even weave."
While Corwin had been considering his options, Dalton's right hand had started to glow. Flames lazily climbed out of his fingertips and coiled themselves around his hand. Keeping his left hand in control of the fireball in front of him, he pointed at Corwin with his right hand writhing in fire.
"Please, do you really think that I'm going to leave myself unguarded? That's beginner shit."
That made it a bit harder. Change of plan.
"I just want you to know, I'm really going to enjoy this." Dalton chuckled, as he raised his hand over his head, preparing to throw the fireball.
"Of course you plan to throw things at me from a distance. You don't even have the guts to fight me without hiding behind your fire, do you?" Corwin taunted, as he straightened and stepped back a few steps.
Infuriated and red-faced, Dalton made a fist, causing the fireball to vanish in a small explosion.
"You have grown a pair, foreigner! I guess it would be better to feel your burning flesh beneath my hands." he snarled.
Focusing on the flame surrounding his hand, Dalton superheated until it started to distort the surrounding air.
Corwin kept his focus his opponent in front of him. Miss Morgan hadn't been wasting her time, he had been learning some scores. However, his 5-second limit was barely going to allow him the time to actualise an element, not to mention actually allowing him to use it. If he had an ignition device, even a little vial of water, he possibly could have made some protection from the flame. But as it stood, the only way for him to take the fire was with his own body. This was going to hurt.
Keeping both his fists clenched and in front of his chest, he slowly approached Dalton. There was no way that Dalton was going to allow him to get a hit off without using his flame, so he had to make it count. This was going to hurt real bad- but he was running out of time, and there was nothing else he could think to do.
They were both coming in close now.
Grimacing at the knowledge of what was going to happen, he threw a slow right hook at Dalton, who easily caught it with his flame wreathed hand and smiled maliciously.
Corwin nearly screamed as Dalton's fiery grip almost robbed him of all thinking capacity. Swiftly, he bit down on his tongue to retain his focus.
Taking advantage of Dalton's momentary gloating, Corwin quickly stepped in- ignoring the searing pain on his wrist, and stamped his foot on Dalton's.
Before Dalton could realise what he was doing, he slammed a vicious headbutt into his opponent's temple. Dalton stumbled backwards, causing him to release Corwin's hand- but with Corwin's holding his other foot securely in place, he toppled over backwards.
Although he dearly would've loved to repay Dalton for his red raw wrist, he knew that his friends could come at any time. With one last grin at the boy rolling in the ground, hands cradling his head, Corwin turned and ran back towards his house.
* * *
Breathing heavy from sprint back, Corwin pushed the door open and called for his parents.
"It... happened!" he panted, out of breath.
"Slow down, what exactly happened." Lana tried to calm her son. She had a pretty good idea, but unfounded panicking wouldn't help anyone.
After a few deep breaths, he composed himself.
"One of my classmates caught me after a lesson. We fought, and I only just managed to escape," he held up his burnt wrist. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the pain was coming back in full force. Clenching his teeth, he continued.
"There's no way I can get back to Miss Morgan's house now- they're going to be waiting for my return."
Gasping at her son's severely burnt wrist, Lana quickly ran off to get some bandages and salve. Ennis stayed with Corwin. For better or worse, that had been his son's first real fight. This was the point at which kids either gave up or kept on.
"How did you fight?" he asked in a severe tone.
Grimacing as his mother wrapped applied the salve, Corwin looked up at his father, recognising the seriousness in his voice.
"I wasn't able to stop him from actualising an element," he lamented.
"Unfortunate, but sometimes that's just not possible. So, how did you deal with the element?"
With a small smile, Corwin continued. "I goaded him into throwing away his ranged advantage, and then got him to fall for a feint."
Ennis dropped the serious look and broke into a grin.
"Then it sounds to me that you fought well. Congratulations on your first fight!"
Corwin broke into a full-on smile on that
Ennis continued.
"You got away with minor injuries and effectively took down an enemy with an already actualised element. He might not have been the most experienced opponent, in a serious fight, there's no way anyone would discard their range advantage. But, you weren't experienced either, and you still came out on top, despite all the disadvantages. That's an achievement worthy of celebration!"
Corwin beamed at the compliments, but that happiness quickly gave way to sadness when he remembered.
"I'm not going to be able to take lessons with Miss Morgan anymore, am I?"
Lana hugged her son closely.
"I don't know Cori; I just don't know."
That was when they heard footsteps approaching the house.
***
Lana's father was decently well off. It was how he could afford to let his daughter and son-in-law live in the forest, while neither of the couple worked a job. Sure, they provided for themselves with what they could find in the woods and traded for what they couldn't in the market, but houses didn't come cheap.
The reason he was well of was that he worked as the negotiator for the bulk of trade between Solum and Animar. He would meet with the emissary, who would tell him what was in demand, at what quantities would be purchased, and then Aiden would arrange for his network of gatherers to collect the required amount.
And it was precisely because of this connection with the emissaries that he knew about what was coming for the town.
As well connected as he was, there was only a small portion of people that he deemed worthy of sharing the information. His head gatherer had served him faithfully throughout the years; so he was told. The town baker had not only provided magnificent bread and food for him over the years, but had also been a constant drinking companion and a dear friend; so he was told. Of course, his own wife was also informed.
However, there was another close member of his family of whom he had disclosed nothing to. He loved Lana with all his heart, and despite what many thought about Aiden's stony demeanour, her disability never changed his affection towards her.
Rather, it was her husband. The man had never shown any sense of shame when he had received his generous support over the years, never embarrassed that he had relied so heavily upon his wife's parentage.
It was like the man didn't understand basic common sense. But then again, if his suspicions turned out to be true, then perhaps it would be entirely understandable.
And so it came to be that Aiden grumbled all the reasons why he shouldn't be coming here as he made his way to his daughter's house. In the end, it boiled down to one thing. Although he greatly disliked the man, he was not ignorant enough to ignore the joy he had brought his daughter. And his grandson was a beautiful boy.
Coming up to the door of their wood cabin, he quickly opened the door and found himself face to face with a knife-wielding Ennis.
The poor man almost fell backwards in shock, and had it not been for Ennis catching him at the last minute, he would have.
Shaken, he looked inside the house to see his grandson fiercely being protected in the embrace of his daughter.
Apparently, this wasn't going to be the first piece of bad news the family experienced today, Aiden thought dejectedly.