2 Broken Bones

"Ughh" Aster growled as they hit his face on the washroom sink. He could feel blood flowing out of his mouth. His blue eyes searched for escape. This was not the first time he had to suffer this. They did this frequently.

One of them, Aster did not see who, he couldn't open his eyes anymore, pulled his blonde hair again. Before he could see what was coming, his head hit the mirror and he could feel blood flow out of his wide forehead. The washroom was a pool of blood now.

"Uugghh" another growI.

He wanted to fight back but they were far more stronger than he was. This was the reason they were doing this. He, Aster was weak. Weakest of the weakest.Aster had tried to fight back using physical force,but his punches and kicks were nothing in-front of their strong spells.

"Let's leave him here for now. Or else he will die. " One of them spoke.

'Kill me, please...'Thought Aster. Dying was better than suffering this.

"Ya, we should. He shouldn't die so easily. He our toy. What will we play with if our toy dies?" One of them spoke sarcastically. The others laughed at this.

"Hey! You filthy brat! We are sparing you for now. We can meet again." One of them flipped his fingers and the pool of blood just vanished from the floor. They walked off, laughing from the depths of their hearts.

'Why don't they just kill me? I can't take this anymore. Why do they do this?' Aster thought laying were they laid him. He couldn't move. He knew that his body couldn't take it anymore.

'Why me? Why was I born as a weak mage in all the mages on the planet?'Aster thought cursing himself. 'I have to go this damn highschool only because this was my father's dream. A wretched dream to have when his son was this weak. Shit! Shit! SHIT! WHY? Why this to me? The fault is mine.Why did I give my theory entrance exams well, when I know that my spells weren't strong? All of this is my fault, my own fault.' He could not think anymore. He was drifting away. His mind went blank. He was blacking out.

***************

Aster opened his eyes to see himself in a hospital bed. His head was still heavy. He saw bandages on his left arm and a plaster on the right. He saw that he was not wearing his shirt. All the wounds he had on his chest were bandaged. He felt his forehead with his left arm. He had a big bandage there too. But he could see no one in the room.

Just then he saw the bedroom door opening and a girl and a boy emerged from the half open door. He recognised them immediately. He had expected this.

"Ah! You woke up!" Exclaimed Sienna as she closed the door behind her.

Sienna was a cute girl with shoulder length red hair, which she always let loose.She had dark brown eyes which made every boy in school turn to look at her twice. Her face was round with a perfect jawline. She was one of the stronger mages in the school.

"You recovered quickly this time." Said Eren.

Eren was a tall, dark, black haired, handsome, boy. He was known all over the school for his athletics and dwelling skills. His spells were always perfect.

"You guys shouldn't have done this.You should have let me die."

"Bro, what are friends for then?"Eren smiled.

"You are running a risk curing me every time they do this. They might target you next."

"No bro, never, they won't. Don't worry. Even if they do, we'll take care of it. Now, you are our friend and you need help." Sienna spoke up and pulled a cupboard drawer open and took out some herbs. She made a paste of it and casted a spell.

Aster saw all of these with disgust on his face. He knew what was coming.

"Why are looking at her like that? You have to drink it." Eren said a bit naughtily. Even he knew what was coming.This was not their first experience.

" Drink this." Sienna said.

Aster looked at the foul smelling portion one last time before covering his nose. He closed his eyes and put the bowl to his lips.....

He took his first sip and then he could feed his tongue burning with the bitterness of the portion.He took one more sip..... That was too much.... His stomach couldn't bear it. He could feel the bile churning in his stomach.

"Bbbuuuuurrr... Phew!"He expelled out everything he had taken in.

Eren laughed like mad at this.

Sienna went red with anger.Aster saw her face.'Ow she looked damn cute!' Aster thought.

"You try drinking that next time. Then you will know." Aster shouted jockingly.

"I'm not the one who get beaten every week."Sienna shouted back laughing.

"It's tomorrow. So we have to go."Even said when the laughter died down."The doctors will one to help in case the pain is more." He continued.

"Oh! Tomorrow right? Ok... I'll try to get there before it begins."Aster said.

Then they left closing the door, leaving Aster alone again with his thoughts.

'Tomorrow is going to be a big day. I have to get there." He sadly watched his broken arm and injured body again....

He closed his eyes again trying to gain peace from solitude. Doesn't know when, but he fell asleep.

************

'Where am I?'Aster wondered as he looked around.He was in a dense forest.The forest had a thick canopy with tall trees and thick vines. He craned his neck to see over the trees. He could see high mountains to his front. Mountain so high that they would overtake the highest mountain on Earth in terms of height. He looked up to the sky and could see large birds. Birds so large, that made him believe that he was not on Earth.Then he saw those gaint birds circling over his head almost as if they were watching him.

Then there was a sudden jerk. An order. It was loud enough for the whole world to hear.

"SURRENDER! OR YOU WILL DIE. "

Aster could not see the speaker.He did not understand whom the speaker meant. Anyway, he walked fast. Then, another roar. A thunder.

"ASTER BROWN," the voice said, "IF YOU DO NOT SURRENDER NOW, YOU WILL DIE. THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING. "

"Me? What did I do?" He was confused and tensed. The voice sounded dangerous. "What if they really kill me?" He thought. He walked fast now, faster than ever that he was almost running.

"ARE YOU SURRENDERING OR NOT BROWN?" This ecoed everywhere. Aster started running.

"Attack!!" Aster heard someone shouting.

Just then all the birds in the sky charged at Aster. Aster saw them closing in. He starting running. He could feel his heart pounding. That was when he noticed it. Those were not birds at all. They were dragons. Deadly beasts with large tooth and jaws. They were black in colour with sping tails. Even the sight of them was horrifying. He ran faster now. Now he noticed something that he had failed to notice earlier. Each dragon was controlled by a human.

Just then, one of them moved his fingers in a weird pattern as if he was drawing flowers in air. Aster was shocked to see those patterns take the form of silver blades with 5 arms each. And those were coming straight at him.

"They are mages" Thought Aster."There's no escape now."

He knew that he couldn't stand up to them. He wished he had more power to face them. He ran as fast as he could. As far as his legs could take him. His legs were now bruised because of endless running through rocks and thorns. He stopped a bit to bake a breath. He pushed away the vines in front of him and ran again. The mages following him continued their attacks.Finally he couldn't run anymore. He stopped, panting again. He was struggling to breathe. He was so concentrated in running that he failed to notice a silver sword he had in his hand. The sword had a dragon carved to the handle.

On the back of the handle it was carved in golden letters, 'Imperial mage'.

The dragons were nearing. He wanted to run again. But, this time, he decided against it. Something in his heart told him not to. It asked him to fight back. It hold him that he had the power to defeat the fiercest monsters in the universe.Aster heeded to his heart. His mind was still not confident yet, he decided to do as he felt.

Aster turned around to see the dragons approaching him. He did not faulter. He did know how, but for the first time in his life he had the courage to do something. Something real.

He raised his sword, circled It with his arms for warmup. Now he was ready. Ready for anything that was to come. One of the dragons spit fire from its mouth. A whirl of red and blue flame came straight at Aster. Aster raised his sword above his head and waved it in air fiercely. So fiercely that it looked like a storm. The flames died down at that very instant. Aster felt more confident after this.Each time he raised his sword, wished for an element and whirled the sword, a new attack formed and blew out of it.

One unexpected attack disarmed him. Now, Aster had nothing but himself for his rescue. He started loosing his courage. He heard his heart say again" You can do it, Aster. I'm with you." Aster listened to his heart again. He turned to fight them. Just then someone pulled his shirt and took him away into an underground passage In the forest.

"Don't try to fight them without your sword. You still haven't fully cultivated your manual skills. Remember that." It was a female voice. He had not heard that before. 'How does she know me? What do those mages want? Where am I? Why did I have that sword?Why are they trying to kill me? Where are all my wounds?'

Just then an immense white light made him shut his eyes.When he opened those, he was back at the hospital room. He was relieved to see himself in a safer place. Relieved to know that it was a dream. But wait! It felt so real. As if it really did happen. As if he had gone to some unknown place and fought with the mages there. Aster felt like laughing at that thought. He was so pathetic in dwelling. How can those be true?

"Huh." Aster let out half a laugh, half a sigh. He had enjoyed it. But now, he was again in his ugly life. He looked at his bandaged hands.

The bandages had disappeared!

The door opened and the head nurse rushed in with the head of the hospital. The head nurse was an old, fat woman with a broad back and a large double chin. She looked concerned and nervous.

"This is the room, doctor."She said hurriedly.

"How did you come in? Where were you?" She started in surprise seeing Aster in the room.

The doctor who was a young man, replied cooly, "Calm down Jessie, you might have made a mistake. "

Then he turned to Aster, "Sorry for the disturbance.Oh!! You look well. Why are you here now? Jessie, make arrangements for his discharge If he has no other issues."

The doctor left saying this.

Jessie who still couldn't believe her eyes stared at him in bewilderment. Even Aster was surprised and nervous by what he just saw. If it had really happened, the mages, the dragons... Oh noo...