"Fifteen silvers for anyone who brings the head of the bear that's been terrorizing civilians to the Guild Hall!" a town crier shouted Dasher trotted past.
'Guild Hall, huh?'
Maybe I would end up there soon. If I decided to go through with this whole magic thing. Lots of sorcerers ended up in a guild. Wizards and warlocks not so much. Wizards typically end up with the MEB and a vast majority of warlock patrons are Gods, so they end up in the churches.
Every now and then, someone who doesn't use magic ends up a powerful adventurer. It's very difficult, but a regular person can become unbelievably strong if they train in conditions where their bodies can be saturated with ambient mana.
While I could continue thinking about my potential life as a sorcerer, something else was tugging at my mind. That was my innate nature, All Consuming.
Innate natures were the ways mana acted inside a sorcerer. For example, a mage with Water affinity and a Flexible nature would have water magic that likes to bend and twist. They would be agile and quick on their feet. Their water would seem somewhat elastic, as opposed to just being liquid. Or maybe they have a Scalding nature, and all of their water is innately hot, boosting their offensive capabilities.
While 2 sorcerers could have the same Prime element, and it wasn't uncommon to find two who had the same Combo element, it was almost unheard of for two sorcerers to have the same nature. Unless, of course, it was a common nature such as flexible, or the two sorcerers were related, as natures are hereditary. Much more so than elements.
It was almost guaranteed that a child would have the nature of their sorcerous parent. Or a coin flip if they had two sorcerer parents. But elemental affinity only has about a 3/4 chance of being passed on. The other quarter would be a related combo element, such as a fire mage having a child with lava affinity, or sometimes just a completely different affinity.
Which brings me back to my nature. All Consuming. It certainly did not sound like a common affinity. Maybe it wasn't. I was marked as magic prone because of two reasons. The first was my aforementioned Great Grandfather. I'm not privy to exactly what his magic was like, but he was a sorcerer with a Fire affinity. That's all I know.
I was never told his nature, but he wasn't an amazing sorcerer or anything. Definitely didn't fit something as grandiose sounding as "All Consuming." That brought me to my mother.
I never knew her. According to my dad, she was a damsel in distress that he found seriously wounded in the forest near our farm. He so valiantly saved her, brought her back to the farm, and nursed her back to health, although my grandmother did most of that part.
This woman claimed she was the daughter of the incredibly powerful Vanir family. As time went on, a young love blossomed between the two, but some time after they nursed her back to health, she said she had to leave. Her family would be worried. Nine months later, some knight arrives with a young baby boy named Caius.
Or so the story is as my father tell it. And he was an incredibly vain bastard, so I always took it with a grain of salt. No one else in my family liked to talk about it. It was like they were humoring some sad choice of his. Even my Grandmother, who was usually honest to a fault, avoided this topic. Even as she was dying.
Because of this, I always believed he was just lying about it. Maybe I was just the son of some peasant. Or he had his heart broken. Or something. I never put much thought into it. But this made me re-think what I had thought all my life.
All Consuming? That didn't sound like the nature of a simple Fire sorcerer who owned a farm. But the daughter of an incredibly powerful and influential family? That just might make sense.
I gazed down at my right pointer finger to look at the only other thing that may confirm what my father had always claim.
There rested a ring made of black steel, trimmed in red, with a red engraving of a dragon entwining around it. Supposedly the mysterious knight had brought it with him. The ring certainly looked expensive but I'd never wanted to sell it.
Without any more information to go on, I resolved to ask my father, before internally moving onto other topics. I had long past the gates of Lockwood by now. 'About 4 more hours, I reckon,' I thought to myself as I gazed up at the sun, which was about halfway between it's zenith and the horizon.
'School season should be starting soon. Maybe I head to Theria, attend the mage academy. Maybe see Max and Val?' Maximus and Valeria Foeman were brother and sister, as well as good friends of mine.
They ran the forge in town with their father, but the two left to attend the mage academy and open a larger business when Max received a Fire affinity. It had been about a year since I'd last seen them. They left around early summer time.
'I wonder how their business is going? Maybe I can enroll with Max, although I'd probably be a year behind him.' Plans that I wasn't entirely sure I would follow through with were starting to form in my mind.
Before I knew it, I had crested a large hill, and was now gazing down at our large expanse of land, and the farmhouse resting in the middle. The sun was just starting to set, so a nice golden glow surrounded the whole thing. The last dregs of light began to disappear as I reached our stables, to put away Dasher.
"You did good boy. Thanks for your hard work." I said as I led him into his stable. After I had settled him in, I began walking to the main building. I hadn't seen anyone, but my cousins or my uncle were probably out working the farm.
As I stepped through the rusty door, I was greeted by the familiar living room, the smell of the fireplace, and a somewhat sarcastic "Well look who finally decided to show up."