Part 1
>Hikari Pov<
(He's such a brave child. Even though there's pain in his eyes he always smiles. I wonder how strong he will become. I wonder how far he will climb. I have high hopes for him.) Hikari can hear Samu running down the stairs from inside, his desperate steps rushing for the door.
"Master! Leaving so soon?" Don't look at me like I'm abandoning you!
"I have to leave. The carriage departs soon and I need to make it to the next town by sun down."
"I understand. Will we meet again soon?" Ugh don't look so desperate!
"I most likely wont see you for a few years at least."
"I understand.." Ah he has that cold expression again.
"Dont feel down. The next time we meet I should be strong enough to learn chantless casting, if you're willing to teach me." I give him a wink and his eyes light up with excitement.
"Look forward to it. I wont be as easy on you as you were with me!" With that I pat him on the head and take my leave.
>Samu Pov<
"I'll miss you!" I yell out to her as she leaves.
"Save words like that for your lover!" She yells back as she waves goodbye.
I watch her walk past the horizon and let out a loud sigh.
"Look at you Mr. Lady killer. Already taking after your dad huh?" I turn to see my dad mocking me from the second floor window.
"Don't be weird! I'm far too young for her." He just gives me a weird smile.
"I have a feeling your age has a big factor to play!" He laughs as he mocks me.
"Dad stop being weird or ill tell mother!" I've come to learn that father fears mother.
"Hey I didn't say anything wron- OW!" I can see mom hitting father over and over and yelling something that I couldn't quite make out. Father just covered his head with his arms and tanked her blows as always.
"I'm headed out!" I'm bored so I might as well explore more around the area.
"Just don't go near the forest!"
"Yea yea and ill be sure to come home before dark!" I yell back as leave.
I really am starting to love this land. Its always so relaxing walking throughout the landscape. The nice warm breeze, the sound of the wind rushing through the grass and crops, the soothing green colors of the area around me. The only thing that could make this place better is if it rained a lot more.
I spent the next few hours simply taking in the nature of this place. I looked at the different bugs along the road, the different animals that roamed the area, and the adults who I occasionally saw tending the fields.
Once I was only a few minutes from the village I heard a familiar scream. I run down the road in the direction of town until I saw a group of 10 kids throwing mud balls at some other kid.
(Wait that's not just some kid. They're wearing the same hoodie as the Elowyn families child. Why are they throwing mud?) Suddenly I could hear the sound of something solid hitting the child soon followed by a cry out in pain. I glanced over and saw the child curled up in a ball holding their head.
"Hey what the hell are you guys doing?!" They just ignore me.
Soon I saw all of them start to pick up rocks and ready themselves to launch them at the mud covered child. As they hurled their stones at the kid I summoned a stone wall to block the attack.
"Huh where the hell did this come from?!"
"Over here you moron!" I yelled out to them finally getting their attention.
"Apologize right now!"
"Or what are you going to hurt us?"
"Think you can take on all of us?"
"Are you siding with the Shinigami?!"
"We'll tell the village that you side with the bad guys!"
"I don't even know what the hell you're talking about!" I yell out as I'm now approaching them.
"And it wont matter if you apologize or not, I'm still going to kick everyone's ass. Just apologize and I wont break anything."
The kids just ignore me and try to rush me all at once. (They're so slow.. Maybe I shouldn't use my mana. I don't want father to be upset with me.)
The first kid tries to punch me so I step into his guard and toss him over my shoulder then break his arm over my knee. The boy screams as he rolls on the floor in pain. I demand an apology again as the next two people come into range. I use my arms to break one of their arms as they tried to punch me then caught the other kids punch in my hand. I twisted his arm and kicked his leg out before throwing a knee into his contorted arm inverting his elbow. As they fall to the ground screaming the rest of the kids stop running towards me.
"Apologize" I demand as I continued to pursue them at walking speed.
The kids panic and turn to run away but I cut off their escape route by surrounding them in stone walls forcing them to face me. They become frozen in fear as I approach them.
"Apologize, last chance" The kids scream and cry out as they apologize.
I punch one of them in the gut making him buckle then I smash my knee into his face. The kid doesnt cry out but simply falls to the ground.
"We apologized so leave us alone!" I shook my head.
"No I said you're taking this beating no matter what. The apology was so I wouldn't break anything in the process." The beating didn't take long. Especially with them cowering and letting it happen. Once I was finished I left them there and approached the bullied child and noticed them watching me.
"Hey are you alright? What the hell did you do to get them to throw rocks at you?" The kid just shook his head.
"Are you hurt anywhere? I can heal you if you need it." The child stayed silent and just started fidgeting.
"Well if youre going to just stand there like that at least follow commands. Take off your hood so I can clean the mud out of your hair." The child sighed and pulled back there hood showing mud stained hair.
"Here let me help you out." I use water and fire magic to heat up some warm water and began washing his hair out. I've never seen hair this short in this world yet. Any shorter and it would have been a buzz cut. As I cleaned his hair he seemed to flinch as if he was bracing for an attack. Then I saw it, White hair with black tips. (Multicolored)
"Are you part of the Shinigami tribe?" He shook his head.
"N-no, I'm not an demon I'm an elf."
"Do some elves have multicolored hair?" He shook his head
"No. My father says its because of the beast folk blood that's also in me but I'm not sure if that's true.." He spoke at such a soft meek tone.
"Well are you hurt anywhere?" I don't know why I even asked considering I started to heal him anyways.
"Y-you can heal people as well?" I nod as I finish healing him and began to make my way to the different children healing their wounds as I go.
"Why hurt them if you're just going to heal them?"
"Because no one will believe their story if they have no injuries. I don't know how your parents are but I'm pretty sure mine would be upset with me."
"I see..."
"So what were you up to before these kids attacked you?"
"I was bringing father his lunch before they attacked me and stole it.." He walked over to the nearly destroyed basket of food. The contents inside smashed up.
"Im sorry I wasn't in time to save your basket. If you want I could escort you the rest of the way?" The boy blushed and nodded.
"Thank you my knight..." Samu laughs not fully understanding.
"My father's the knight, I'm just his son." The boy shook his head.
"No you are a knight. You always come to protect me."
"How can I just watch something terrible happen to someone. Father always says the strong must protect the weak." His long ears droop down a bit.
"So where's your father at?"
"Oh! He's about an hours walk from here. He's on duty at the southern watch tower." The boy clung to the basket of food as we made our way to his father.
"So why are you hiding your hair with your hood?" The boy didn't respond and just stayed silent.
"Are you scared of being bullied for it?" He silently nods.
"Well its too late for that now. You might as well own it at this point." He just silently listened as we made our way.
"Can I at least know your name?"
"Eyara Elowyn.." he responds in a soft meek voice.
Eventually we found our way to the watch tower, his dad climbing down to meet us.
"Hello sir, it's good to see you again."
"Oh its the Wolfang's kid! What brings you here? Looks like you two have been having fun today!" I shake my head.
"Thanks to a group of kids throwing mud balls and rocks Eyaras clothes are now dirty" The boy fidgets a little before handing his father the beat up basket.
"F-for you father. I made you some sandwiches but t-they got ruined...hic" He began crying. The father looks into the direction we walked from glaring intensely.
"I see. Would you be able to recognize them if-"
"That won't be necessary sir. Ive taken care of them already. I doubt they'd even look in his direction again." His father looks at me with a hint of fear.
"Did you kill anyone?"
"What? No! Geeze I only broke a few bones! I even healed them so don't worry about it." He sighed with relief. (Huh? He really thinks I'd kill them?)
"Well then if you say so then I'll take your word for it." He took the basket and began bidding us fairwell.
"Ill make sure he gets home safe. I'll be sure to tell father about what happens so he can adress it with the village." He looked at me with a shocked expression before smiling and nodding.
"Then I'll have to leave this one in your care. Stay safe Eyara and be sure to tell your mother I love her." Eyara gives his father a hug before saying their goodbyes.
The walk back to his house was a silent one for the most part. I tried conversing here and there but with no replies. The most I got was a nod every once and a while. It wasn't until we arrived at his house till he began talking to me.
"A-are you busy tomorrow?" He fidgets with his hands nervously.
"Only in the afternoons. Father always has practice the sword with him, but before and after I'm free. Why? Did you want to hang out?" He seems to be growing anxious.
"I just wanted to know if you were OK with playing together tomorrow. Though I've never played with anyone before so I'm not sure I'll be any fun to be around..."
(Wow he's pretty insecure. I should be able to fix that at this age before it gets worse.)
"Id love to play some time! I don't have any friends either so I'm new to playing as well, we can learn together!" I give him as honest of a smile I could and held out my hand.
"Kay! I look forward to it!" He shakes my hand and smiles.
"We should meet up somewhere after my training. We could hang out in the morning but then you'd have nothing to do while father trains me." He nods.
"That's fine, we can meet at the lake after you're done!"
"There's a lake near by?" He smiles and nods.
"Yes! It's my favorite spot! We can meet up at the large tree near the village tomorrow and I'll show you!"
(I'm glad he's not sulking at least.)
"Alright then I'll see you tomorrow. I should head back before it gets dark. I told father if be home by sundown."
"O-oh then you'd better hurry!" He waved goodbye as he went inside.
(Guess i have plans tomorrow.)
I run most of the way back home but still couldn't manage to make it back in time. Father, mother, and Elxie were waiting for me at the gate.
"Sorry guys I didn't expect it to take so long to get back from Eyara's house even though I ran the whole-" Mother cuts me off.
"We have heard something very disturbing while you were gone."
"Apparently you were busy beating up the village kids nearly to death!" Father says raising his voice slightly.
"Yea? They deserved to die."
*smack* the pain on my cheek stings
"That's no way to talk about children!" Mother says now raising her voice.
"Do children normally stone each other?!" I now raise my voice.
"Dont make up excuses! You could have killed them with the strength you possess!" Father says clearly getting angry.
"Do you even know what happened?! Did you even bother to check with me before confronting me outside the home like this?! I was even kind enough to heal them let alone spare their lives!"
"What happened young master. Id like to hear your side of the story if you'd please." Unlike my parents Elxie seems to understand.
"I was exploring the area when I saw Eyara being attacked by a group of 10 throwing mud and stones at him. I tried to stop them with words but they turned their attack on me. I didn't beat them near death. At most I broke three of their arms and knocked them out. If you ask me it'd be better to have just killed them so they're not a problem in the future. But I figured you'd be mad at me."
They just looked at each other and contemplated.
"Maybe next time I should burry them so it's not a headache later. After all it would have been less effort than hitting them-"
"OK ok I get it. There's no need to say anything you might regret." Father sighs and rubs his head.
"So you protected the Elowyn's kid? Are they alright? Their father would probably kill them and their parents if he knew."
"He's fine. I healed him before I healed the other kids. I already spoke with his father and he seemed to accept the outcome after I informed him that I'd tell you what happened." Father sighed after what I told him.
"Damn, guess I have to adress it first thing tomorrow then. Good job holding back and protecting Eyara. Sorry for assuming you were at fault." I shake my head in response.
"I dont mind being asked, but next time be sure to consult me first. Ive tried my best to be a good child to my parents. All the effort spent felt wasted just now. Id rather it not happen again." Both mother and father nod and apologise again before going back inside. I let out a long sigh
"Thanks for speaking up Elxie. The situation would most likely have escalated if you hadn't intervened."
"Its no problem at all young master. I know if it was as they thought you'd definitely would have killed them and left no trace."
"You say that as if I'm some evil villian." She shakes her head and bows lightly.
"Id never throw such accusations towards you." I walk past her and pause for a moment at the front door.
"I'm sorry you feel that way." She says nothing as I turn in for the night.