[Lilleren]

  “Clever Cleaver Clover, send Reji on over,” we all chanted. Reji started running from the far line on an angle, towards Fin when he darted left and tried to get past me and Yennica. We screamed as he hit our clenched hands. My hand stung from the tension, but he didn’t break us apart.

  “I thought I could make it!” He yelled, but he joined our line anyway. Their team only had two kids left— we were winning.

  “Hey, come on guys!” I looked back to see Biffian, on the other side of the greenery, yelling at his two followers, Heathry and Pomir. “Check out the little babies. Let’s go have some fun.” They all came running towards us.

  We stopped our game to see what they wanted. I knew it wouldn’t be good. Fin stepped closer to me as they came up to our group. We have had to deal with these fools before. It was best to stick together.

  “What stupid game are you infants playing now?” Heathry asked.

  “Mageless like them have to make something up. They have no magic, like us real mages.” Biffian said, with a sneer.

  “You are not mages,” Fin snapped. “You have to go to school for that.”

  “And there are tests you have to pass,” I added.

  “Who cares about school? We have our affinities now. How about a little demonstration?” Biffian said, as he looked around.

  “Pick up that rock for me, Heath,” he said, pointing. “I’m going to make it a little warmer.”

  Heathry reached out her hand towards the rock which was a stride away and concentrated. Her hand started shaking a bit as she strained, but the rock started wobbling and then rose slowly in the air while moving closer to Biffian. She was starting to shake more as she tried to hold it still in front of him.

  Biffian reached out both hands around the stone but without touching it. He was also concentrating. A little wisp of smoke started to rise from it. Then it started to glow orange. “Now, throw it!” he yelled as he pulled his hands away. The stone started moving away then accelerated, straight towards me.

  I screamed as the stone hit me in the shoulder, knocking me over. It stuck to my sweater, first melting it then starting it on fire. Fin yelled loudly and quickly came over to knock the rock away. Then he started to slap my burning sweater to put out the fire.

  [Jerik]

  I heard yelling and screaming as I came out of the blacksmiths shop, where I had been looking at some weapons which I knew we couldn’t afford.

  I knew that scream. It was Lil.

  I looked up the street for her, knowing that she and Fin had been playing with their friends on the village green. I started running as fast as I could as soon as I saw them. As I got closer, I could see both Lil and Fin crying on the ground. Lil’s sweater had a large, black, circular hole near her shoulder, and Fin’s hands were bright red with blisters forming.

  There were a bunch of kids their age standing around them yelling at three taller teens, only slightly younger than me— known troublemakers.

  “What did you do?” I yelled at Biffian, knowing he was the usual gang leader.

  Surprised at my fierce anger, he stepped back and held up his hands, saying, “We were just showing them some magic, but your sister got in the way. It’s her fault.”

  I knew he was lying and making excuses, so I advanced on him. Before I could get close, however, Pomir stepped in front of him. I knew Pomir had a body forging affinity, but at that moment I couldn’t care less. I tried shoving him to the side so I could get to Biffian, but it was like shoving a tree.

  Nothing happened.

  The next thing I knew, Pomir was pounding me in the face. I don’t know how many times he hit me, but it was a bunch. I quickly ended up on my back as he jumped on me. He started punching me on my ribs and arms since I had my arms up now, protecting my face and chest.

  I rolled over and pushed him off of me for a second, so I could get up. I saw Biffian again so I started towards him when Pomir grabbed me from behind, holding me off the ground and began squeezing the breath out of me. I tried swinging my arms and kicking him in the shins with my boots, but it didn’t seem to do anything.

  I couldn’t breathe. My chest was compressed, and I could not expand it again. I was getting desperate for air. My vision started going black. I tried to think of anything I could do.

  At that moment I felt something deep within myself that I had never felt before. It was a warmth, or maybe a glow, but also felt like a powerful emptiness at the same time. It was hard to describe.

  I don’t know how, but I reached for it.

  That's when Pomir dropped me and I could finally suck in air, gasping over and over. I turned to look behind me and saw Pomir staring blankly at his hands. I didn’t care why. I was furious so I wound up and punched him in the face as hard as I could. His nose gushed blood as he fell back on the ground, screaming.

  I turned around in time to see Heathry pointing at a rock which was rising into the air. I didn’t want to wait for what she was attempting, so I ran over closer. I didn’t want her to do whatever she was going to do, but I also didn’t want to hit a girl, so I stopped. At that moment, her rock dropped on the ground and rolled away. She strained harder but nothing happened.

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  I could still feel that empty warmth in my gut, but it had grown a bit warmer and felt less empty than before.

  “What’s wrong with me?” she hissed, looking between her hands and the rock.

  That’s when Biffian stepped around her and put his hands out towards me. I don’t know what he was going to do, but I knew he had an affinity for heat. I didn’t want that either, so I backed up a bit to hopefully be out of his range.

  Again, nothing happened, other than my internal emptiness filling and growing a bit more.

  “What’s going on?” He asked, looking at me strangely.

  “I have no idea,” I said. “But you need to apologize now for burning my brother and sister.”

  “It was their fault. We didn’t do nothin’ to them.”

  I was truly disgusted by that point, so I stepped up close and punched him hard in the gut. He folded over and started vomiting the contents of his stomach onto the grass. I noticed, with some satisfaction, that some of it was getting on his trousers and shoes.

  The younger kids started screaming again and soon ran away.

  I turned to collect Fin and Lil. Lil was still crying so I picked her up while Fin followed me away from there. As we left some adults started arriving, probably to see what all of the screaming was about.

  I paused, but decided I wasn't going to wait around for the fallout, so I ignored them and quickly headed home. Lil was still crying as we walked, but I could tell that Fin was trying to be brave regardless of his burns.

  As we arrived home, mother came outside. She always seemed to know before we got home, especially when there was a problem. She took one look at the burns and, without asking any questions, led us to the cistern which was full of cold water.

  “Jer, go get me a clean rag,” she said, so I ran to get one.

  When I got back, Fin was already cooling his hands in the water. Mother had removed the burned sweater from Lil and opened her shift enough so she could gently dab the cold wet rag on her shoulder burns.

  “Go fetch Healer Kinning,” she asked me, so I nodded and ran back to town to get him. When I arrived at his house, I was disappointed to see him in the distance, already heading toward the village green, probably to deal with a broken nose. I went into his house, which was also his clinic, to talk to his wife.

  “My sister and brother have bad burns. Can you send the healer to our house when he gets back?”

  “Your father is Sterith, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Alright, I’ll send him as soon as I can.”

  “Thank you,” I said as I left.

  I could see quite a crowd gathered up the street as I ran back home. When I arrived, I let them know that the healer was busy but would come soon, hopefully.

  “Thank you. I already heard from these two, but can you give me your version of what happened?”

  So I told her about hearing Lil screaming and running to find her and Fin on the ground with their burns. I told her about the bullies, and a little about our short fight. I did confess to hitting both of the boys but promised I didn't hit the girl.

  That's when I remembered Heathry was the daughter of the mayor, which gave me a feeling of foreboding.

  I didn't say anything about the warm pressure in my chest. The feeling made me apprehensive, not really understanding what it was. I noticed it had eased a bit, though it was still there.

  Later, as we finished supper, Dad came home with a bang, slamming the door open as he rushed in. The healer followed timidly behind him. Healer Kinning was a strange looking man. His nose and mouth stuck out too far. His cheeks sagged and his ears hung too low. If you asked me, he looked a little like a dog.

  We learned from a young age that magic can sometimes cause changes to the mage’s body. The stronger the magic, it seemed, the more dramatic the changes could be. We also learned not to stare, which was considered very rude. Instead, whenever we saw people in town that didn’t look quite normal, we were to always show them great respect. You don't ever want a mage to take offense.

  I considered both of my parents as normal looking, though maybe others thought differently. After all, I had grown up with them. Dad was tall and muscular, which wasn’t unusual. But he always had a thick beard, which he complained about sometimes, saying it would grow back faster than he could shave it off. Mom had teased him that it kept going all down his chest. So, yes, he was very hairy.

  Mom, on the other hand, was very beautiful, but her hair was actually a sunny yellow, rather than blonde. I had overheard her and Dad once talking about some color patterns and changes to her skin. (I think the word she used was hideous, but Dad called them artistic.) But I never saw them, so they must have been covered by her clothes.

  Dad looked very concerned as he walked in but waited to ask me what happened until the healer could see to Lil. Mom took Healer Kinning back to our bedroom, since they had to show him the burns on her shoulder and chest.

  I told the story again, this time for Dad, finding it a little easier to tell each time. He looked extremely angry when hearing about how kids, who should know better, were using harmful magic against smaller children. But he actually laughed when I told him about punching the bullies, one with a broken nose and the other vomiting on himself. Fin laughed too.

  “Now let's see those hands,” the healer said, who had come out by then and heard the end of my story.

  Holding the backs of Fin's hands and concentrating for a while, I could see Fin's hands slowly turn a more normal color.

  “I can reduce the pain and speed up the healing, but the blisters will have to heal on their own,” he said to Dad, since Mom had not come out of the bedroom yet. “Stop by my clinic and I can get you a bottle of ointment to keep the blisters from getting infected.”

  “Thank you,” Dad said. “We'll come by tomorrow morning.”

  Turning to me, the healer said “It sounds like you were in a fight. Do you need me to look at you also?”

  I thought about my hands which did the punching, and my face, arms and ribs where I had gotten punched a bunch of times, but they actually weren't bothering me now, for some reason. I know I had a swollen lip and eye earlier, but they seemed to be much better.

  Huh, that's strange.

  “I think I'm okay, thanks.”

  “Before coming here, I saw the others who you mentioned earlier. They claimed that you did something to take away their magic. Did you do something like that? Do you know your affinity?”

  “I don't have any magic,” I confessed, with a lump in my throat. “I’m too old to manifest.”

  He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I don't think he believed me, for some reason. But I was telling the truth.

  “Well, it's been a long day. It's time for me to return home. So I'll take my leave.”

  “Thank you so much for coming on such short notice,” Mom said. I hadn't noticed when she came out. Dad showed him to the door.