The following morning, Akai was shirtless downstairs. He winced as Lacy stood behind him, applying some salve to the awful bruise he has between his shoulders. “It feels like it’s freezing me” he complained but Lacy just gently tapped the other bruise hidden by his hair. Akai winced and she said “That’s the whole point, this is mostly mint. Now stop squirming.”

  Akai tried to sit still as she continued applying the salve, his mother in the kitchen preparing breakfast as his father sat with fresh bandages on his leg and a crutch leaning against his side. Rei said “We are lucky to be alive, honestly. graylocks are pretty dangerous. But they were never supposed to be this far south of the mountain. Something happened to drive them away.”

  Across from Rei sat Kidd’s father Liam. Liam sighed and leaned on the table some. His vermillion eyes looked over at Akai who was trying not to wince as Lacy was rubbing in the salve. “We’ll have to report this, you know.” Liam said with mild annoyance. “I hate making these kinds of reports.”

  “That means someone has to make a special trip to the city.” Rei said, tapping his bandaged leg. “Not going to be me, though,” he added.

  Liam leaned back in his chair, rubbing the bridge of his nose for a moment. “I’ll go and take some of the other villagers with us.”

  Akai looked up and turned a bit to face Liam but just as quickly a wooden fork flew from the kitchen past his head. Jennifer said sternly “Don’t you even think about it, young man.”

  Akai looked back at her before Lacy pushed him a little, making Akai lean forwards and said “Hold still. I gotta do the bruise under your hair next.” as she brushed his silver hair off his shoulders.

  “When you’re in the city, reach out to the academy. See if they’ll send a tutor or something to teach these dunderheads how to not almost kill themselves trying to fight monsters.” Jennifer commented, going back to fixing breakfast. Sauteeing some garden vegetables with leftovers from dinner last night.

  “I’ll ask but they typically charge out the a-.. Out the nose for private tutors. We’ll see.” Liam said, catching himself to try not and curse casually. “We’ll leave right after the festival the rest of the people want to host. Ought to take maybe a little over a week to get there and back if we make good time and don’t dawdle.”

  “Speaking of the festival, how is it coming along?” Lacy asked as she was gently rubbing the mint salve into Akai’s scalp now.

  Liam said “It’s coming. The butchers are having a hard time cutting through that graylock’s hide but they’re already planning what to cook and a section in the village center for everyone.. The village head wants you to help with decorations, Jennifer.”

  “Ooh, I have a few good ideas. I’ll get on that” She said as she began serving plates of breakfast to everyone present.

  After breakfast, Akai was finally let free to go outside. But he was threatened by his mother with a wooden serving spoon to not get in any more trouble. Akai may be able to fight off a monster in the forest but he knew better than to try and defy his mother. He promised to behave and left after putting on a shirt.

  At the smithy, Akai poked his head in and saw Emmie was inside, sharpening a number of knives as a guy wearing a bloody brown apron sat on a stool. Complaining “I still can’t believe that thing’s hide is so tough. Blunting all my nice knives just trying to skin it.”

  Emmie looked up and saw Akai and she smiled. “Well, if you wanna complain about so much free meat, the hunter it right there.” and pointed with the half sharpened knife before putting it back to the whetstone on the bench. The man turned around confused before his eyes widened.

  Akai waved a little with an awkward smile before saying “It’s okay, trust me.” before the man said. “You’re walking already? Geez, you kids are tough. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get the best cuts.”

  Turning his attention away from the guy in charge of butchering the graylock, Akai asked. “Is Lamorie doing okay?”. Emmie nodded and said “She’s in her room sulking. Go up and see her.” as she focused on re-sharpening the number of butcher’s knives.

  Akai walked past through the forge and to the attached living space. Heading through before finding Lamorie’s room up a set of stairs. He slowly opened the door before hearing “I already told you, mom, I want to stay inside today.”

  The brown haired girl was laying on her side in the bed, reading a book. She had on a light tunic and pants, Akai can see bruising on the back of her arms and neck. Most hidden beneath the shirt.

  “It’s me, Lamorie.” he said quietly, but his voice still made Lamorie almost jump in bed as she straightened out. She sat up and looked at him, the two locking eyes for a moment. Then Akai had to duck to avoid a book sent flying at him. “Don’t you dare scare me like that!” she shouted, trying to get up but her knee buckled and she fell back onto her bed with a wince.

  Ignoring her outburst, Akai walked in and asked “Are you okay?”

  “Am I okay? You saw me get body slammed by a living boulder. I’m lucky I didn’t break anything.” Lamorie grumbled. “It hurts to lay on my back and it hurts even worse to walk right now.”

  Akai sat down on the bed next to her and said. “I know..”

  Lamorie looked down and clenched her fists a few times, feeling frustrated about something. Akai gently nudged her, silently urging her to talk.

  “I was cocky with this new power. I think we all were. And we would have died if you didn’t do whatever the heck you did… Which you still owe me an explanation for.”

  “I’m not sure what I did, Lamorie. But it felt the same when I was facing Kell. It felt unbearably hot inside my chest and I could only think about protecting you guys. Then the heat inside just.. Spilled over. Next thing I know the heat stopped hurting, and my body felt almost weightless. And I moved before knowing what I was doing. I guess it was instinct. But when I relaxed, everything hurt. It felt like my insides were on fire. I almost blacked out from the pain.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “And the thing you did to stop your father’s bleeding?” Lamorie asked.

  “I don’t know.. I just saw him hurt and knew I could help. I pulled that feeling of heat back and pushed it into his leg, it just worked.”

  The two sat in silence for a bit before Lamorie groaned again, trying to stand up. Akai held out a hand and she used him as support to pull herself all the way up. Akai asked “Does your mom know you can barely walk?” to which she shook her head. “No, and I don’t want to.”

  “Why?”

  “Because then she and dad are gonna make me take some disgusting tasting medicine until I get better and the stuff they make me take, I would seriously rather eat Old Man Elmer’s ‘fried fish’ again.”

  Akai shivered at the mention of the old man’s fish shaped pieces of charcoal. “Those things could be used to build a house and outlast the king’s castle..” he muttered.

  “Well, anyways.” Akai said, trying to get his train of thought back on track. “Lacy knew how to make a salve that really helped with the bruises and muscle strain, but it was not pleasant to actually put on.”

  Lamorie thought about a salve instead of some kind of medicinal drink. Then blushed when she realized that Akai would probably want to apply it, and she did not want to think about her friend rubbing something all over her back and legs. She shook her head as her face became a bit flushed, and then said while trying not to face him. “I don’t think that would work either..”

  Akai rubbed the back of his head and was at a bit of a loss how to help other than let her take time to recover.. They stood there awkwardly for a bit before Lamorie said “Have you checked in on Kidd yet?” trying to change the subject away from herself.

  “No, I haven’t.” Akai admitted before Lamorie pushed him, making herself fall back on the bed. She said “Well go do it!” as she hurriedly made herself lay back on the bed how she was originally.. But then she looked and couldn’t find her book and slumped, remembering now that she had thrown it.

  “And.. Can you grab my book for me, please?” She asked under her breath in defeat.

  Akai did so before leaving, closing the door behind him. He did notice the title of the book she was reading, which was a collection of popular myths and folk tales in their country.

  It took Akai about 15 minutes to walk to Kidd’s house where he heard an argument going on inside. Curious, Akai peeked through the window and saw what was happening.

  Kidd was shouting “I’m perfectly fine, mom! It’s okay!” while his mother was trying to wrestle him down into a chair. Yelling in return “Young man I let you out of my sight for 5 minutes and you got hurt again! You are not going outside ever again!”

  Kidd saw the iconic silver hair of his friend as he struggled against his mother before smiling.

  “I promise, I’ll come back for dinner.” he said, his mother stopped and looked at him. She squinted and said “you wouldn’t dare..”

  Kidd only smiled before electricity crackled around him. He quickly escaped her grasp and ran out the front door before she could react. Christie stood up straight and took a deep, slow breath. Before she yelled “Kidd Fuller!” at the top of her lungs.

  Before she could turn and spot him, Akai ducked and quickly ran away. Kidd caught up with him after he got a few houses away and broke line of sight with the Fuller house.

  Akai asked, “Your mother really didn’t like what happened, did she?”

  And Kidd replied, “The minute dad left she wouldn’t let me stand up without trying to help me. You and Lamorie are the ones that got the worst of it, I just feel a little sore.”

  Kidd walked in front of Akai and stood, asking. “So, are you going to tell me what happened to make you go, you know, all super like that?”

  Akai rubbed the back of his head gently before sighing. He repeated the same thing he did with Lamorie, that he felt the need to protect them and the heat inside him boiled over. After that, he moved on instinct and didn’t really think about what he was doing.

  “Anyways..Your father is going to be taking a few villagers after the festival and head to the city to report what happened.”

  “Yeah, I heard him complaining to mom about that all morning. He really hates doing paperwork and has to go to the adventuring guild, which he politely called ‘bureaucratic hell’ whatever that means..”

  Kidd put both of his hands behind his head and began walking leisurely, Akai following and keeping pace.

  “Your girlfriend doing okay?” He said casually, eliciting a groan from Akai who said “She’s not my girlfriend..” exasperatedly.

  “She is going to be okay, though she is struggling to walk on her own right now. “

  “Damn, that bad?” Kidd asked before stopping. He squinted ahead before turning and taking a different route. Akai looked ahead and saw they were heading to the road that Kidd usually took to the training field, and saw his angry mother stomping around ahead of them. Akai didn’t feel like being scolded for Kidd’s stunt so he quickly followed, leaving before she could spot them.

  As they walked through the village, they saw many of the other people working on decorations for the festival they were holding at the end of the week. Some of them waving as they noticed Akai and Kidd passing, both fairly distinctive because of their hair color.

  “Well, lets hope she’s doing better by the time the festival happens.” Kidd mentioned. Finally, Akai had to ask “Where are we going?”

  Kidd smirked and shrugged, saying “Well, my mother is thinking we’re heading to the training field. She’ll then head to some of the other places I sneak off to. Then she’ll talk to our families after that.. We’ll stop by your place so at least you won’t get in trouble by the time she gets there.”

  “Alright. I do have an idea on what we can do since I am definitely hurting a bit too much to swing a sword.” Akai said.

  “Oh yeah? Out with it then.” Kidd said, looking over his shoulder as they walked to face his friend.

  “Train our powers to get a better grip on what we can and can’t do.. We obviously have limits and need to find out where they are.”

  “Won’t they teach us that in the academy when we’re 14?”

  “Yeah, but what if something else dangerous shows up before then. There’s still another graylock out there. I’d rather be prepared.”

  Kidd thought for a moment and agreed. “Yeah, that’s true. I couldn’t really cut it and it managed to overpower Lamorie. And you got really hurt when you pushed yourself”

  Akai and Kidd continued to idly talk and eventually made it out of the edge of the village and up the road to Akai’s home. There, Kidd’s father Liam was still inside talking with Rei. Lacy was sitting outside drawing in a sketch book that Akai’s family managed to buy for her. She looked up and waved gently. Her eyes lingered on Kidd for a few moments before looking back down, returning to her drawing.

  Akai went in and told Liam that Kidd was here and they would be out behind the house. Liam of course sighed and asked “Does Christie know he’s here?” And seeing Akai look to the side, not answering straight away. Liam just said “I’ll cover for you.”. Akai nodded and headed around the house with Kidd.

  There, they began trying to brainstorm how to train without hurting themselves