In this world, there is what they call an "awakening", which means there is a dormant magic power that can help become stronger, the most common use for awakening is to improve their lives or the lives of others. This awakening can make you one of the strongest beings in this world or just give you some slight improvement, magic to run faster, to be a little stronger, to have an affinity for the elements of nature, other special talents, etc. It all depends on your initial rank, potential, and how much you train it.
In Luna kingdom, there is a town called Vermis mostly made up of farmlands and forests, it's comprised of 7 little towns that neighbor each other, all pretty much the same size.
Luna is a pretty average-sized territory, roughly 2 million kilometers squared, Vermis is on the Southwest side bordering Ocelot another kingdom, who we have an alliance with,
North of Luna kingdom is the Hungria Kingdom, there are another 2 kingdoms in the continent named Velez, Alexandria, and Iris that are farther North and West, the Eastern border lines with the ocean.
The continent is currently at peace, the last big war was 35 years ago when Luna lost 20% of its territory.
There are 3 major cities in Luna and about 20 towns similar to Vermis, each major city is mainly comprised of High-Borns and nobles,
High-Borns are families of royal blood, and Nobles are all high-ranking citizens, but High-Borns can only be born from both parents being of royal blood, if a child is born with a mother and father of noble and High-Born blood the offspring will be a noble and not considered a High-Born, there are a lot of special rules that comprise the continent of Velez.
Each one of the major cities has a king, Luna has three kings in its kingdom, each one governs a part of Luna and they make all major decisions together, Vermis is ruled by King Suffolk, In Vermilion City, there is also King James in Westlake City and King Henry in Amber City.
Theo had just turned 14, he lives with both his parents Ben and Alice and has two younger brothers, Thomas who is 11 years old, and Edward 9 years old, and a baby sister Lucy 6 years old,
He lives in a pretty peaceful town, in a two-story stone wall house that's comfortable enough, his father is a 2nd ranked mid-level healer.
Awakened are classified into 7 ranks, 7 being the highest, and in every rank, it goes from low, middle, high, and peak, the normal age to awaken is from 7 to 15 years old.
Both brothers have already awakened, Thomas is an Elementalist with water affinity, and is 1st rank early stage with 4th rank potential and Edward is a healer, also 1st rank early stages, with a 5th ranked potential.
Lucy and Theo have yet to awaken.
'I have to get ready fast! I forgot I'm starting my apprenticeship at Ray's workshop' Theo thought as he had breakfast quickly and ran out the door.
Theo had black short hair and was 5'6 feet tall, there was a creek that goes right next to his home, every time he passed it he would skip a rock on it, thinking the more it skipped the better the day he'd have.
"Here we go!" 'mmm skipped twice, guess today can go either way
When he got to Ray's it was almost noon, he was kind of incredibly late, Theo could see Ray hard at work, banging on something.
Ray's the local forger, a big guy, completely bald, and has a big black mustache.
"Good morning Ray, sorry I'm late"
"Nice of you to show up, better be the last time, we start at sun up, if you're not here don't even bother". He said while cleaning some sweat from his forehead.
" I'm sorry Ray, won't happen again, I just sort of forgot we were starting today" I looked at him embarrassed.
He just gave him a look of disbelief and scoffed, "all right, go in the shop let's get you familiarized with what you'll be doing".
"Ok so here we have the bellows, it's what you are gonna use to have the hearth as hot as possible which is where we'll heat the materials, in front is the cooling tank which must always be filled and changed every morning, and half day, the anvil is where I'll be hammering most of the time, over there are my tools, I need you to organize all of it by size, my hammers and tongs go on those nails on top of the workbench, everything else tries and keep it tidy"
As he was looking at everything trying to remember what he said.
[Brief explanation:
Bellows look kind of like an accordion, and shoot air to the hearth.
The Hearth looks like a chimney with coals all over it, is used to heat the materials,
Anvil is that big metal thing where blacksmiths and forgers hammer items and such.]
His workbench where he talked about his hammers and some pliers-looking things was a mess, everything was dirty and unorganized, and it would take Theo all day to organize and clean.
' I can barely clean my room and now I gotta clean for this big oaf, two skips were generous, one is more like it'.
"So, any questions" he looked at Theo questioningly.
"Amm, y -yeah, what do I do first?"
Ray scoffed and rolled his eyes, "the fire needs to crack, add coal to the hearth and work the bellows I'll tell you when to stop"
'It bothers me when adults roll their eyes at me, it's like if you didn't want me to ask don't say 'if I have any questions?', just tell me what to do' I went and packed the heart with coal and went to the bellows.
"So I just press to air the fire?"
"Yes, but you gotta do it fast and consistently, so that we can get a nice flame"
I started doing it, and after about 8 presses I was sweating, this was gonna be a long day.
"Guess Daddy hasn't shown you to work hard, those stick arms aren't doing you no favors, better learn to work hard and work on your body or you're not gonna last with me"
Theo kept pressing the bellows the entire day, trying to keep the fire as high as possible, and Ray kept taunting him for the entire day, being the healer's son and having yet to awaken he would get picked on a lot, so Theo was used to it.
When Theo got back home, they all had dinner, Edward talked about what he learned with Ben, and Thomas about trying to improve his water movement, and Alice and Lucy made dinner.
'This is my favorite part of the day, eating mom's delicious food and talking with my family.'
The next day Theo got up before dawn, Alice was already up so he asked her if he could get some new clothes, she said she'd take him on his day off which was this Saturday, he had breakfast and ran to Ray's, skipped a rock and got 1 bounce, so not a good sign.
When he got there Ray was already there, right as the sun was coming out.
"Cutting it close, remember if you're on time you're late," he said while preparing some materials
'Then maybe you should have told me to be here before sunrise" I eyed him angrily.
"Don't you give me sass boy!" Ray gave him a smack on the head.
As he worked on the bellows all day, Theo ended up covered in soot and got smacked a couple of times, he was exhausted by the time he got home, had dinner, and went straight to bed.
This went on for three more days, every day he skipped the rock bounced once, and by the end of the day, his whole body was throbbing.
Finally, on Saturday the whole family was going into town, Thomas wanted books, and Edward was going to get his first energy crystal for canalizing his powers, when you're starting crystals help to enhance and control your energy a lot easier.
The Town Center was fairly simple and small, with about 8 shops small buildings, and 4 street vendors, the mayor's office was 2 min away, and it had a nice little flower path in the middle.
"Ok so Thomas and Edward go with your father, Theo, Lucy and I are going to the Millner's shop, meet you back at the square in one hour dear" Ben nodded and they split up
They went into the shop, and Alice greeted Mr. Bazir who is the shopkeeper, and asked "Do you have any clothes for Theo here?" The shopkeeper Mr. Bazir greeted them and said, "I have a couple of new shirts and trousers but for outerwear, he should look in the used section".
"Ok honey to see if you like any jackets or vests, I'll get you shirts, trousers, and a pair of new boots"
So Theo went to the rack in the back, It was really common for outerwear to not fit teenagers for very long so you could buy it and return it when it didn't fit well and you'd get most of your money back.
Vermis had a very nice climate, it was rarely cold and it only rained in spring so Theo thought to get a vest, which is easier to clean, 'This will look pretty good on me' he thought as he looked at himself in the mirror the vest that was black with cerulean undertones, it looked very stylish It was a perfect fit.
When Alice saw it she smiled and said: "what a handsome man, you look very dashing Theo, doesn't he Lucy?"
"big brother looks pretty!" Said Lucy with a huge smile,
Theo smiled back chuckled and said, "thank you" while slightly blushing.
As they were walking to the square, Theo was already wearing his new vest and felt something in the right pocket, when he checked it, he pulled out a beautiful silver chain, he just looked at it, and even though it was a little dirty and worn Theo could tell it was of high quality, 'maybe I'll ask Ray about' he thought while checking the chain.
He put it around his neck and hid it under the shirt, they got some food and talked about Edwards's new crystal, Ben complimented Theo's newest vest and they walked around town till they went home.