The Teachings

Upon reaching the southern group building, Deamon looked around and noticed there were only about forty kids altogether. Some parents were talking and the children were playing while they were waiting for the first day to begin.

"Any new arrivals please come check in over here!" A voice rang out over the conversations.

Savage immediately knew the owner of the voice and started to walk towards it.

"Hey! Hawks it's been a while! How have you been?" Savage greeted with a smile.

The woman with the head of a bird was looking down at some parchments before she heard the voice. She raised her head to see who had called her but she already knew just by the sound of his voice.

"Hello mutt, I've been better. I was told I was spending too much time in the owl's library so I was tasked with leading the teachings for the southern group." She said rolling her eyes and looking back down.

"Good morning Minerva." Both Autumn and Roa said simultaneously.

Hawks looked back up with a more engaged attitude. "And a pleasant morning to you too."

"Why are you being rude to me and nice to them?" Savage said questioningly.

"Probably because when you say it it sounds mean," Thom answered. "And she's probably still mad at you for what you did."

"For what I did? That was almost 20 years ago and I've apologized numerous times for it..."

"You doused me in water then covered me in flour while calling me a chicken in front of the western group." Hawks said sternly. "Nevertheless I will be fair in my teaching and assessment of your son."

"Thank you, I know Savage makes stupid choices every now and then but Deamon is different. He's more grown-up than his father even though he's a little shy." Autumn said with a smile.

"That's a very good thing Autumn and I would love to continue to talk, but seeing as Deamon and Scarlet were the last ones for the southern group, it's time to begin." Hawks sighed as she stacked the parchments before raising her voice again. "OK everyone it's time to begin with the first day! Children, please take a seat and parents stand along the sides of the room!"

The classroom was a single room building that had a single table and chair in the front-facing everyone. The room was pitched so the children's seats were elevated compared to the teacher. There were four rows of twelve chairs with all but six of them full.

"Today we will be going over some basic things like finding out who can read and write, do math, and find out what combat type you are...and your element if you are a mystic type. So raise your hand if you can do math? Like using money and buying things."

Twelve students raised their hands. Deamon looked at the other kids who had their hands raised and while most were the children of different tribe leaders one had stood out. An elf had his hand raised near the front of the class and this confused the class.

"Excuse me, Hawks? Why is there an elf here? No offense child but elves are usually taught in the capital or by their parents. Let alone the one beside him" A fox-feral asked.

"I don't have parents." The boy replied. "And neither does Tiny, we're orphans from the orphanage at the edge of the village center."

"As Keith has said, he and the half-giant beside him are from the orphanage and have asked for and been granted permission to go through the teachings," Hawks added. "Now if that's all settled, who can read or write?"

Only seven students raised their hands this time. Deamon looked over and only four of the seven were a leader's child. Keith again had his hand up but Tiny again did not. Deamon looked next to him at Scarlet and realized she didn't have her hand raised.

"You can't read? I thought your mom was teaching you?" Deamon whispered.

"She was but it's so confusing and I can't do it," Scarlet replied.

"OK, now that I made note of that I guess we can move on to what everyone has been waiting for. When I call your name you will come down here and sit in this rune circle so I can find out what your combat type is. First will be Keith."

Keith got up and went straight down to the rune circle on the floor and sat in the center. Hawks then proceeded to put her hands down on the edge of it and it started to shine brightly before dimming some. The color changed to blue and stayed that way before Hawks stopped him.

"As expected you are a mystic so come put your hand on this orb and it will tell us what kind of mystic you are."

Keith put his hand on the orb and a white light shined from it.

"Interesting, most half-elves have water or fire or even ice but you have light. That's usually only seen in pure high elves or spirit elves but it's not impossible for anyone else to have it. Light mysticism is specialized in cleansing and healing with some offense and defense sprinkled in, good for you. You can return to your seat, and next, we will call Deamon down."

Deamon felt all the eyes land on him as he stood up and froze. He looked at his parents who were silently cheering him on then to scarlet who was as well. He made his way down to the front and sat in the middle of the rune circle. Hawks put her hands to the circle and it shined again before dimming quite a bit. Deamon had his eyes closed silently chanting to himself "Please be brawler."

When he opened his eyes he was taken aback. He was seeing part of the circle a dim green and the other part was dim blue. The color for brawler was red. The brightness also showed your capacity for them as well and his barely showed at all.

"I'm sorry it's not what you hoped for but we need to test your element."

Deamon got up and never looked up at his dad. He went over to the orb and thought to himself "Maybe this can be ok? As long as I get something good or even the physical element this will be fine. As long as I don't get lightning I can do this." He put his hand on the orb and it started glowing a few different colors then settled on one.

"Oh...I am extremely sorry Deamon....but your element is lightning."