6 Who Are You Jack?

(Jack's POV)

"What are you?" I repeat and watch her go paper white and freeze in her tracks. What did I just do? What did I just cause in her head? She looks down and asks, "What has your life been like?" I look at her and point out the obvious, "You're avoiding the question." She looks down and sits at the edge of the roof. "I know, but I want to hear your story first. Then I might tell you." I sit beside her and sigh, "Okay, I'll tell you, but eventually I want to hear about you because if I don't it will drive me crazy."

*Flashback*

I was raised in the woods, by a group of nomadic hunters. I wasn't liked by the majority of the group due to the rumors of me being able to control fire. Of course at this time, I really had zero fuckin clue cause I was like, four. My real mother fended for me and cared for me until I was six, when she was killed by a fire that angels started. Of course, the group blamed it on me. They still kept me as a kind of punching bag for their anger. We had found a house with smoke coming from the chimney, so they went long around, but I didn't. I hid until the group was gone then knocked on the house, gripping the knife I stole fearfully. A rather young lady opened the door and smiled, looking around. In hindsight, she was probably searching for any attackers. After being satisfied she found nothing, she brought me inside. "Henry, look! A boy showed up on my doorstep! And he's radiating with magic, I told you I wasn't going nutty when I told you magic was nearby!" The younger middle aged man, apparently named Henry, who I learned to be her brother, looked at me and nodded. "I suppose you're right Kate. Boy. What's your name?" I was terrified, still gripping my knife. "J-jack… M-magic? What do you mean?" The woman, Kate, smiled and ruffled my head, my trimmed hair really not giving the desired scruffle. "Why, I'm a witch my boy, and so is he but he prefers the term warlock. Tell me, what is your prowess? Is it fire? Like mine, or lightning? Maybe it's like Henry and all elements." I looked down, hoping that the group wasn't right but knowing for certain they were. "The group I… ran away from, rumored that I could control fire… my mom was killed by mystical beings that appeared out of nowhere and set her on fire…" I remember dropping the knife and rubbing my eyes, tears already forming. "E-everyone blamed it on me.." Kate and Henry looked at each other, then Henry spoke. "How old are you… Jack?" I nodded and sat down before replying. "10. The rumors began when I was four because I had somehow lit a lantern by waving at it. I showed my mum because I was super excited… her friend told everyone… after all the ridicule, I never did it again." Kate had sat down on the floor next to me, rubbing my back. "Can you show us now?" I remember nodding shyly and Henry had brought over a candle. I didn't know if it was still gonna work. They set it next to me, and I waved. Nothing. "Again. Concentrate on the wick." Kate took her arm off me, probably because she thought it could have had me distracted. I waved again, nothing. In my stubbornness, I waved a third time. I had closed my eyes before doing it in self disappointment, but I heard a quiet gasp from Kate. "He did it… Jack… if you were able to do that at four… you are an even more powerful warlock than Henry or I. If you would let us, I think I speak for both of us when I say we want you to live here and train. What do you say?" Considering what I just did, I was in tears of both sadness, remembering my mother, and the happiness of being accepted for the first time in 4 years. Without hesitation, I leapt into the nearest arms, Henry's I believe. "I-I would like that a lot… please…" And so I had a new family. One that wasn't afraid. They let me become accommodated with the land around me for the first month or so, then began training. We started by doing the candle until I could do it with a small movement of my finger. Then I accidentally started a small tree on fire testing the range of my finger swish. Kate then began bringing me to a more open area to train. Within 6 months, I could light small campfires and up to 12 candles in any room in the home. On my birthday, Kate and Henry got me a nice cake with fire decals and let me use my magic to light the 11 candles on it. The present they got me, and I still have it, was a ring with a thin black rope attached. There was a note that told me to open whenever I was missing home and to wear the ring on my finger if I was ever in severe danger. Slowly I began to call them Mother and Father, and as I got older they… Ran out of things to teach me. I could do everything on the small scale and the biggest thing they could teach me at the age of 14 was a fireball, but even after months of training with it, I still couldn't keep it stable for very long, sometimes couldn't even summon it. They told me they would train me on dangerous stuff when I turned 18.

*End Flashback*

"So I suppose you know my backstory now. I still live with them, and in two weeks I turn 18. I learned knives with them when my fireball became stable and quickly had to go to a king's coach for it and won several competitions." She looks up at me and I ask, "So what's your story?"