Two friends

You close the door behind you as you look around at the beautiful scenery. You see lush trees full of vibrant green leaves, you hear birds chirping away and rabbits carefully dashing between tree to tree as to not be trapped by the hunter's snares that lurk behind the inviting bushes.

You watch this scene for a while then take a deep breath as you begin down the long concrete road. strangely though the roads have been here for decades the look relatively new.

Mostly because no one has used these roads since everyone knew magic there is no point in learning how to drive when you can fly using mana with a little bit of training.

Other than the farmers who are probably the only reason these roads exist. They come down from the barn every few months for trading and to resupply. Though you have always pitied the framers, the men, women, and children who have too little mana to even work in the machine sect anything other than work all day for little to no money and almost zero respect.

All this decided by a simple test called the mana test.

You can still remember the day of the mana test, everyone knew you needed a mana level of 5 or above to pass and we all worked hard to achieve it through some aren't even able to raise it due to no connection to magic.

If you didn't have that you would be sent to the Barn where you would work as a farmer for the rest of your days only coming to the village for supply runs and too trade goods.

You were so nervous that when they called your name you nearly fainted. You walked up to the light mage, whose powers were used to scan your bodies for mana.

He puts his hand up and you are coated in warm yellow light, the man then lowers his hand and says in a husky voice.

"Mana level 8, Next!"

You were ecstatic to be lucky enough to have a mana level of 8 but your childhood friend Rose wasn't so lucky she had a mana level of 3 even though she was able to slowly raise it she was still sent to the Barn.

You can remember the pain from your raw throats as you both cried all day even then you still begged your mom to let you spend the night at roses house so you can spend her last day home with her.

That was the last time you've seen Rose though you hope you could meet again someday.

You take a deep breath as you look up at the volcano in the distance you can hear your heart beating out of your chest your legs feel as if they were noodles and you feel as if you are gonna collapse at any moment. You close your eyes and once again take a deep breath as you march forward towards your destiny.

Your half way to the base of the volcano when you are struck by something big, heavy and fast. You fall to the ground and groan in pain as you blink rapidly to regain your composure and clear your vision when you look up you get a good look at the figure.

It's your friend Noah who was your only person who was your only friend after rose left. You can remember the constant beating you two got from the school bullies due to your higher mana level, though he always shielded you from there heavy blows when the numbers began to overwhelm you.

Though he annoys the absolute hell out of you nevertheless, you still love him he has stuck with you through everything. In the training room, he is the only one who even tried to drag you out when you passed out from exhaustion and you would gladly risk your life to protect him.

You push him off of you and suck your teeth in annoyance. What the hell is wrong with you, you shout as you get up and wipe the dirt off your now dirty sect uniform. I saw you on my way to the volcano and I thought I should surprise you he says with a smile. "You could have just jumped out of the bushes and scared me."

"I like to try new things plus your face wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying." He says as he jumps to his feet. You are now able to get a good look at him, his hair is a dark brown and he has these big curls that sometimes hang down almost covering his eyes which are a big and beautiful dark blue, His skin looks as though it was kissed by the sun and his clothes are a mess his sect badge is crooked and his shirt is covered in dirt.

The grownups usually say he's gonna be a handsome man when he grows up and you could never see why he's always covered in dirt and his hair is a complete mess. You start to fix him up so he looks as presentable as possible for the ritual.

"I don't see how you could come out of the house looking like this you're a mess."

You say with a disappointed sigh.

"What's wrong with how I'm dressed I think I did better than usual today."

He says as he wraps his arm around your neck and with an ear-bursting shout he screams while pointing at the volcano and striking an awkward looking pose. " let's go so we can become powerful mages!"

You pause for a second as you take in everything he said and burst into laughter. "Hey, don't you dare laugh at me while I'm trying to look cool! " You take a deep breath saying "Come on dumbass let's go before we're late." You say as you grab his hand and head towards the base of the volcano ready for whatever comes your way.