10 Chapter 10- Four Shadows

"Good morning Arthur"

{Good morning Oliver. It's time for you to get up from your bed. I know you have been awake for the past half an hour and have been trying to act like you are still asleep. But if you don't get up now you might get late for the capital city.}

"Yeah yeah I know. Anyways although I don't have much time, I can still spare some time for some stretching. If not my brain and body will be dull the whole day."

After 30 minutes of some stretching and some exercise, when Oliver returned to his room he saw both Ben and Martha were standing there.

"Morning Ben Martha, I was just about to come to the kitchen as soon as I took a bath."

"Hahaha well, we wanted to catch you before you went for a bath because we had a couple of gifts for you.". "As you will be starting your travel to the capital today we wanted to give you some things that you might need for your travel and your stay there," said Martha while holding a well-prepared bag.

" Here I have already prepared a travelling bag for you and it is filled with everything that you might need for the travel and even in the capital city. I have made a couple of extra clothes for both hot and cold weather. So you don't have to worry about clothes."

Seeing tears in Martha's eyes while she gave him the bag Oliver felt guilty and sad and said, "Thank you, Martha." Ben interrupted, " well there is no need to feel sad. Anyways now it's my turn" as soon as he said that, he took a small box out of a pouch and gave it to Oliver, "Why don't you open it. It's something good."

When Oliver opened the box he saw an even smaller red gem packed carefully inside the box. The gem looked mysterious with small engravings on it. Seeing the mysterious gem Oliver said, "Ben this thing is too precious." "Hahaha don't worry about it, it's a gift for you after all. Anyways it's not an ordinary gem, you will come to know what it is later so keep it safe with you till then."

Listening to Ben Oliver looked at the box again, then he just nodded his head and kept it safely within the bag that Martha made for him.

Martha looked at Oliver again and said with a smile, "Anyways now that we have given your gifts, go fast and take a bath. I have kept clothes for you in the bath. After that, we will have a feast before you go to catch a carriage for the capital." Then Martha almost pushed Oliver towards the bath while Ben just laughed.

After Oliver took a nice hot bath he came out and wore the clothes Martha specially prepared for him. After wearing a new black tunic with light embroidery done on it with a white hose which perfectly matched with the embroidery on the tunic did he tied his hair loosely towards his back. After 3 months of not cutting his hair, they grew even more and almost reached his lower neck while tied. Then he came back to the main room for the feast.

Seeing Oliver in those clothes Martha complimented, "Well aren't you looking handsome. Who knows how many girls will be crazy after you. It's just that our village doesn't have any cute girls around your age if not I would have talked about your possible marriage with her. Of course, that is if you liked her." Listening to her he got a bit sweaty.

Seeing Oliver's face Ben laughed "Stop it, Martha, can't you see how pale he has become just with the name of marriage. Hahaha, But what you said is also true, he looks just like a noble. Anyways kid let's have the feast Martha prepared."

After the feast and doing the dishes Ben stood up and walked to his room. After a couple of minutes, he came back and gave Oliver an envelope "This is a letter, give it to my friend when you find his shop in the capital city. He will make you his pupil and teach you all about blacksmithing. Just ask for the biggest blacksmith shop when you reach the capital and you will find him there."

Oliver took the envelope. But when he was about to keep the envelope he saw a crest imprinted upon the seal of the envelope. Seeing the crest Oliver frowned, it was a beautiful horse that was running on the crest.

Seeing Oliver frown Ben signed and said, "You have guessed it right. This is a crest of a noble family. Well, there is no need to hide it from you, yes, I once was a noble. Now you must be thinking how did I go from being noble to managing a farm. Well, it's nothing, like all nobles when I reached the age of 18, I was tested for the aptitude of magic. But unfortunately, I had no talent for magic. You see having a talent for magic is very important for nobles especially for nobles who have a long heritage of having mages from their family. Well, after the aptitude test I went straight to the bottom in my family. But even having no magic talent, they couldn't kick me out of the family. Having magic talent is rare even in nobles. And that is why I don't want for you the get your hopes too high. Well, anyways when I reached the age of 25 I met Martha and fell in love with her. My family was against it as Martha doesn't come from a well of family. Anyways they gave me an option, either Martha or family. And as you can see my option was clear. Anyways enough of my past, it's already late you should get ready. You have to take the carriage. The journey is long for around 2 weeks that is if they go on an average pace."

After Ben told him about his past he felt even more determined to become a mage no matter what. Seeing his expression Ben sighed and grasped Oliver's shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. After a seconds pause, he said," Although you have never told why exactly you are so determined to become a mage, but I have a general idea. All I want to say is that the world is a much bigger place than you or I can fathom and there are countless miraculous places far beyond this place."

"Tell me have you ever thought why our town and villages' don't have names and just numbers?" listening to this Oliver's eyes widened, but then he nodded. " Good, that is because we are in such a small place that nobody cares about us. They don't even this these places to be worthy enough to be given names. We are just a dot in the corner of the world. So don't lose hope because there is a whole world filled with miracles."

Seeing Oliver silently nod a smile hung on Ben's face.

..................................

The sun was shining brightly in the sky, its rays slipping through branches of some trees falling on a single carriage driven by 2 horses. You could see 4 people sitting in the carriage 3 adults and a small child. One of the adults was obviously Oliver. He was sitting opposite a couple and their child. The father was a middle ages guy with a well-trained body and a sword strapped to his side. Next to him was sitting the mother who was holding a little girl who was barely a year old. After talking with them for some time he came to know that the husband was a local mercenary and their family was going to the capital to try to earn more because of the little thing that had born to them and also to provide her with better privileges than available in the village. The father's name was Harry and the mother was Eline. And the little ball of light who was often smiling towards him was named Erica.

Slowly the carriage moved towards the capital at a constant pace. With the quiet chirping of birds and the rays of sun falling through trees, it made a very peaceful environment.

Only when the sky became dark and it became harder to travel without proper light did the coachman stop the carriage.

"Ok, this will be our resting spot for tonight. It is already dark and will be much harder to travel at this time of the day. This is a good space and there won't be many animals nearby. So rest up because we will start our journey again at the first rise of the sun in the morning." Seeing all the passengers nod he started setting up a fire and his pot for cooking his dinner.

Seeing this the couple and Oliver also decided to start a fire and start to get ready to cook their food. Just as they started fire Harry suddenly spring up in attention. At the same time, Oliver also got a warning from Arthur

{Oliver there are 4 people in 100 meters vicinity of you who have ill intention towards you.}

'Seriously, that must be the reason Henery got so alert all of a sudden. Anyways how did you know about it?'

{As I have already told you I can do much more than human. I have constantly been scanning the area of 100 meters around you and as soon as someone entered the area I informed you. As for how do I know they have ill intention, just think it of a jacked-up sixth sense or intuition of a normal human. They have 'murderous intent' towards you guys, if you will}

{Anyways what's important is not how I know. But focus on how to get out of this situation}

Soon Henery confirmed Arthur's observations. "Everyone get ready we have company. And not a good one."

As soon as he said that Oliver looked in the same direction where he was looking.

"Hehehe, looks like there is no point in hiding. Common boys let's give these travellers our greetings."

Soon 4 shadows emerged from their hiding spots each holding a weapon of their own.