9 'Twin Horns'

[Day of 'Twin Horns' arrival]

*knock knock*

"Coming!" Rey was running towards the door with a childish grin on his face. How is he my father? I thought to myself jokingly.

"Are you curious Art?" My mother was holding my hand and we were standing behind my father.

"A bit." I answered.

We exited the house from the front door, as our hallway was too tight of a spot for a proper reunion. And as I took a first look, I saw five people standing there with excited expressions leaking from them, except for one. That one looked calm and collected. My inspection was interrupted by a noisy person.

"Is this him! Oh my he looks so grown up already! What a cutie. Come here" A blonde woman with a nice pair of eyes, (…) attempted to kidnap me. She pulled me towards her chest and imprisonned me in her tight grip. How could such a beautiful woman possess such strength, I thought to myself as I struggled to survive.

"Come on Angela, you can't treat him as if he's still baby. He's already a young boy!"

"Yeah, and we want to greet him to."

The party nodded in agreement.

"Oh my, I think we'll have enough time on the way to Xyrus for you to get to know Art." Alice let out a small chuckle.

So this is the party that will accompany us to Xyrus. They do look like nice people. We'll see. And so, we left our home and headed for Xyrus on a carriage.

[On the first night of their journey]

We decided to set up camp in a clearing close to the route we were using. Everybody was helping out. Some went to gather firewood or hunt, whilst the others set up tents and made other preparations. They seem to work well together. I've been watching them the whole day. The party consisted of 5 members, 3 women and 2 guys. Adam, a red haired bloke. Durden, a brown haired bloke. Angela, the blond chick that assaulted me. Helen, a woman with black hair and brown eyes and finally, Jasmine. Jasmine was a rather young looking woman, with black hair and crimson eyes. She had peeked my interest at first glance. She seemed to have a rather cold or at least not as forthcoming of a personality. But her eyes. They were sharp. I noticed her checking on me. What was she thinking? Did she see anything while looking at me? Don't know, probably never will.

…

We sat down around the fire, finally having a warm meal. I was tired and famished. The combination of doing my training while nobody is watching and traveling for the entire day doesn't seem to be as easy as I thought.

"Hey brat. Your parents told us that you guys were heading to Xyrus City because you awakened? How is that possible?" Adam inquired skeptically.

I gave him a cold stare. Did he just call me brat? I'm too tired for something like this.

"Well actually…"my mother jumped in before I could answer"…we don't really know a lot yet. We haven't noticed any elemental affinities so far, and the awakening… well it was different."

"Different how?" Jasmine who only watched from the sidelines suddenly jumped in.

"It's hard to explain. That's why we're going to Xyrus. We hope to find a Mage that can properly guide our boy." Rey admitted.

"I see…"

Most of the party now had a confused expression clearly showing on their faces.

"Also I've been lightly training him at swordsmanship. He's really showing a lot of promise." Rey added proudly.

"Ohhh is that soo?" A devious grin showed on Adams's face. Someone help me please. "Could I borrow him for a quick spar? I tend to digest better when I engage in light exercise after a heavy meal."

I looked over to my mother, just to see here nodding. What? I don't want to…

…

How did it come to this? I was now standing across Adam, with my wooden sword in my right hand. He held his spear in his hands and looked excited. The others were watching us from a safe distance.

"Come on, show him what you're made of!" Rey was a little too excited. "Rey, why are you smiling like that?"

"I don't know, but I'm certain that Adam is underestimating him right now."

"What do you mean by that?" Durden was surprised.

"Well Arthur can be a little scary sometimes. It's his eyes."

The others were even more confused after Rey's attempt to prepare them.

I pointed my sword towards Adam, as an invitation to come at me.

"Ohh, cocky are we?" Right after he said this, he leapt forward for a head on attack. I quickly parried it, catching him off guard quite a bit. It's funny how I didn't really notice how much my swordsmanship improved. It was like a reflex for me. Although that may also be influenced by my previous combat experiences. Not giving me any time to rest on my laurels, Adam jumped back and prepared for another strike. His spear swinging at me, forced me to evade by jumping. I jumped above his spear and towards him. He twisted his spear and it seemed like he would hit me at first. But I managed to evade, by shifting my entire body sideways. I rolled on the ground quickly getting on my feet. I glanced at him. Let's say I was a little pissed. I was already tired and he decides to make me fight him. If he really wants to fight, let's fight. I felt mana rushing to the extremities of my body. It's as if it was it was compressed and something caused it to burst. I felt my body getting stronger. This sudden rush filled me with excitement.

He suddenly froze. Wait what? Why is he looking like that? He suddenly fell to his knees.

"What was that just now?"

"What happened?"

The others suddenly joined with shocked voices.

…

[Jasmine's POV]

What is he? His mana, it feels different. That was what I thought the first time I saw Art. My high sensitivity to mana, made me notice what the others didn't. His mana felt different from typical mana. It felt dark. And by the way, who awakens before the age of four?

Let's forget about it for now and let's watch his little spar with Adam.

What? His movements, they are fast? How does a 3 year old fight that hard? We really did underestimate him. So that's what Rey meant. As if that was not enough, he dodged that twist midair?

He was now standing face to face with Adam. But his expression changed. He looked bothered. And suddenly…

*swish*

Mana started leaking from his body. No that is fog? Or is it a shadow? The black smoke spread across the floor and as I once again looked at his eyes, they were suddenly glowing. A blue glow contrasted the shadow cast around him. It felt intense. I was scared. It's as if I was staring at a deep and endless abyss. The feeling of powerlessness paralyzed me, and I could just helplessly stare.

"What is going on?" Durden broke the silence.

*poof*

All of the tension suddenly disappeared. In an instant, everything returned to normal.

As Art now looking like a normal child just looked at us with visible confusion.

"What was that right now?" I couldn't hold back and the question just left my mouth.

[Back to Arthur's POV]

Oh no! Did I go overboard? I didn't notice it, but I was pouring out some intense aura until I saw Adam fall to his knees. That's what it must be. I didn't even really want to radiate an aura, but it seems like my body backs up my emotions. How do I get out of this? I can't tell them about the nature of my abilities. I'll just shrug it off as some mana pouring out.

…

The others seemed to believe my words and shrugged it off with a sigh. Good. My only worry is Jasmine. She will definitely not be satisfied with that as an explanation. She knows something is up. She is quite a cunning woman.