Runes

The next Morning Otis woke up at 6:03. For the past months he had never gotten any good sleep so waking up early has become a habit for him. Otis walked to the bathroom and brushed his teeth after washing his mouth out he splashed his face with water and looked in the mirror. He saw the messy beard still on his face and reached into the cabinets to get the shaving equipment.

Twenty minutes later his previous caveman face looked like a youthful man with a clean face and flourished cheeks. Otis cleaned the bathroom and walked back into the bedroom and walked towards the closet. He looked at his side of the closet and saw several copies of the same outfit that he had on now. Putting on a clean outfit he walked back into the bedroom. Otis looked at Margett sleeping and realized that he still had half an hour until he needed to wake her up. With nothing to do he sat down and contemplated his newfound "freedom" as an attendant.

Thirty minutes later he woke Margrett up. She threw a tantrum and asked for a few more minutes. Otis was in a dilemma, if he wakes her up later and allows her to get more sleep, she will yell at him for not waking her up at time. On the other hand if he forcefully wakes her up now he may be waking up an angry bear that will lash out at him now. Otis thought for a moment with his hands on his chin and his eyes on the sleeping beauty. Deciding to follow her initial order he kept tugging at Margrett to wake her up. After constant struggling Margrett was out of her bed and on her feet.

Margrett went into the bathroom, brushed her teeth and washed her face. After freshening up she walked into the closet and put on a pair of skinny black pants underneath a plain white shirt. She walked towards the exit and bent down to put on her black boots.

While Margrett was putting on her boots Otis walked over to the coat hanger and grabbed a brown long coat. He didn't know why she wore a long coat in the middle of summer but he didn't bother to ask. After she stood back up Otis put the coat on Margrett one sleeve at a time. Otis took a step back and looked at Margrett quickly walking out the door, her red hair swaying over her fur covered hood as she walked towards the door.

Otis followed closely behind Margrett as he said,

"Do you need me to do anything today ma'am?"

Margrett kept looking forward as she replied,

"Just the same thing as yesterday."

Otis had hoped she said that and bowed towards Margrett before he took a turn towards the backyard. Otis arrived at the backyard and noticed there were less people here today than yesterday. The old man and his posse were not here today. Finding no interest in the area Otis turned to walk back out and saw a silhouette flash by his eyes before

Crash!

Otis fell to the ground hard. He slowly got up grunting while holding his back. After gaining some of his composure he looked up at the cause of his fall and saw a strong young man standing over him.

"Sorry I didn't mean to run into you, but I'm in a rush." The young man said before he took off running again.

Otis, still on the ground, watched as the boy ran behind a tree in the backyard. A moment later an old man walked through the door. His brown eyes scanned the backyard looking for something. After giving up his search he asked Otis,

"Have you seen a young boy about this tall?" The old man questioned as he put his hand about a foot horizontally above his head.

"No." Otis said immediately while shaking his head.

The old man looked at Otis for a second with untrusting eyes before turning around and walking away. After he made sure the old man was completely gone, Otis turned around and walked towards a tall tree. Otis slowly turned his head around the tree and saw a huge boy huddled behind the tree hiding with his head in his legs. It was a comedic scene

I'm surprised he can hide his big body behind this tree.

Snapping out of his own thoughts Otis said to the boy,

"The old man is gone. You don't have to hide anymore."

The boy did not move his body; he only raised his head and looked at Otis without saying anything. Seeing that the boy was not going to talk Otis asked him,

"Why are you hiding?"

The boy continued to stare at Otis but did not say anything.

"What is your name?" Otis said trying a different approach.

Still nothing. After a few moments of just staring Otis turned around and stepped towards the door.

"Wait, don't leave!" The boy shouted urgently

Now he speaks. Otis rolled his eyes and turned back around.

The boy stood up and dusted off his clothes before introducing himself,

"My name is Dariel."

Otis looked at the boy and scoffed to himself. After standing up Dariel was at least 203 centimeters tall, his body was fit and his arms were the size of Otis's legs. He had dark skin, purple eyes and short black hair. Otis looked up at the big handsome boy and he cursed at his parents for giving him his current body.

"Why are you hiding?" Otis asked, snapping out of his jealousy

Dariel fiddled with his fingers while looking down like an innocent kid.

"Because master was going to beat me again for forgetting his food." Dariel replied.

Otis looked at the kid who had just called his essential "master" and could guess what was going on.

"You know you can't run forever right?"

"I know, but this will at least buy me some time and maybe he will forget." Dariel replied, continuing to fiddle with his hands.

Otis's eyebrow rose and he scoffed at the boy's stupidity.

Maybe he'll forget huh. Ha.

"Thankyou for helping me Mr… um, I'm sorry, what is your name?"

"Call me whatever you want" Otis said

"Big Brother!" Dariel said without hesitation in an excited voice.

Otis jerked his head and his face contorted into confusion and disgust.

"What!" Otis snapped

"I will call you big brother from now on." Dariel said again, raising the corner of his lips into a cute smile.

Otis palmed his face with his left hand and pinched his nose. He looked back up at the smiling Dariel and gave a defeated sigh.

"You just met me, why do you want me to be your brother?"

"Because you are the only person to help me here, plus it's lonely here without any friends."

Otis looked at Dariel thinking about the situation between the attendants in here for no one to ever help this kid.

"How old are you?" Otis suddenly asked

"Seventeen!" Dariel said in the same excited tone

Seventeen!! You can get this big in just seventeen years!

Otis widened his eyes and laughed to himself. Dariel looked at the laughing Otis in confusion. Otis calmed down, taking a last glance at Dariel before turning around and walking towards the exit.

"See you around big bro!"

Otis heard Dariel's voice yell out from behind him. A slight smirk appeared on his face before his lips turned back straight.

Five minutes later Otis walked into the library and picked up the book he started yesterday. After finishing the book The Language of the Fire spirit Otis closed the cover and leaned back in his chair. He realized why no one put much importance in the spirit languages. All you can do with the language is tell very simple commands to the spirits such as burn, fly, heal, explode and so on. On top of that the language is not verbal, meaning that all commands have to be written on a piece of paper or something. Such simple actions can only be helpful in households or when using tools and is not worth the effort when a spirit user can merely open his hand to summon fire. While putting the book back on the shelf Otis got out of the chair and walked back into Margrett's room.

…

In a room as big as a basketball court with sturdy gray stone walls surrounding it, a red haired woman danced around swinging a greatsword with her thin arms. Margrett continued to practice swinging her greatsword through the air as she thought about her past.

…

Two months ago,

Tap! Tap! Tap! Tons of quick footsteps hit the ground as Margrett ran away from viscount Jared's knights. Moving her legs as fast as she could, Margrett ran towards the exit of the castle. She turned her head back to look at the approaching knights and despite their heavy armor slowing them down they still were gaining ground on margrett. Desperate and scared Margett turned back around and tried running faster, she took a sharp right turn towards another hallway and out of the corner of her eye she saw a tall and broad figure. Instinctively, she aggressively swung her head to the left dodging to the side.

Swoosh! A fist came across her face fast, ticking her nose as it went by. Margrett didn't bother to look at the aggressor and continued to sprint down the hall at full speed. After taking another seven steps Margrett was yanked backwards by her shirt landing on her butt as she fell to the ground.

Margrett tried to get up and run the other way but the attempt was quickly halted by a rough hand on her neck. The hand lifted her off her feet and squeezed causing Margrett's mouth to open wide and desperately search for air. Her legs flailed widely in the air as her hands gripped the man's forearms. Margrett's grip on his arms slowly loosened and her vision faded.

"Margrett Blackberry, for the murder of the viscount you are sentenced to death by execution." The man said in an official tone. A second after his proclamation, a trail of blood gradually began to fall from his mouth. Thump! Suddenly the man's grip on her throat loosened and she fell to the ground, the impact shook her to her senses and she quickly scrambled to her feet while gasping for air. She looked down and saw a man who laid down in a pool of blood and lifted her eyes to a tall handsome man with neat dark hair and blue eyes.

"Run!" He commanded, However only Margrett's mouth moved as she said, "Brother!" Margrett's face showed a sign of relief before it was instantly replaced with panic. "

"Brother we need to leave now!" Margrett urged as she pulled his arm trying to drag him along. Her brother did not budge; he only turned around to face the thirteen knights that were lightened up ready to attack. He pushed Margrett off of him and used his sleeves to clean off the blood on his sword as he walked towards the Viscount's knights. He stopped ten feet away from them and got into an offensive stance with his sword. With his back turned towards her he said,

"Run little sis, I will catch up to you. I promise." Margrett hesitantly turned around and ran away from the scene.

As she ran, Margrett heard the sound of swords clinking against each other and flames waving through the air. Margrett entered her room and moved the bookshelf to the side revealing a long and dark tunnel. Grabbing the lamp from her desk she entered the secret tunnel.

…

Today,

Margrett released a final grand swing of her sword splitting the straw dummy completely in half. Huff! Huff! Huff! Margrett sat down, her breathing steady as she cast out the memory. A few moments later she stood up, grabbed her sword and walked towards two big doors.

Ten minutes later Margrett was lying in the bath that Otis had prepared for her beforehand. He's getting better at this. Margrett thought as she looked around the room. The bath was perfect, he had prepared a towel and robe for when she got out. He even gave her a massage when he was done cleaning. She got out of the bath and dried herself before putting on the robe. As she was climbing into bed she looked at the ground then at Otis. After thinking for a while she tossed a blanket on the floor and crawled into bed.

Before she was able to close her eyes she felt a hand on her shoulder,

"Ma'am." Otis as he gently shook her shoulder. Margrett turned around with an annoyed grunt and replied "What?" Otis looked down timidly upon seeing Margrett's obvious annoyance. Margrett just sighed when she saw him like this, For someone who looks older than me he is too soft.

"Can I use the pen and paper on the desk?" Margrett subconsciously scoffed at Otis's question. Taking a moment to regain her composure she replied, "Of Course you can use the pen and paper, you must be bored with nothing to do all day." Margrett paused while looking at Otis's face softened in relief. "If you ever need more just let me know and I'll go get you some more." Margrett reassured. Otis smiled and bowed in thanks before laying back on the ground. Margrett turned back around and closed her eyes.

Margrett woke up to the sound of birds chirping and slowly opened her eyes. She turned around to check on Otis and saw him at the desk scribbling something in a notebook. She slowly got up from her bed and tip-toed over to Otis's direction. Otis was peacefully writing in his book until he felt a slight breath over his head. Otis suddenly jerked his head around with wary eyes, his eyes connected to Margrett, who was studying his notebook.

"What is this?" Margrett said pointing at the weird symbols in his notebook. Otis considered his answer carefully before deciding to tell the truth,

"They are fire runes." Otis replied plainly.

Margrett studied the runes a bit longer before looking at Otis with puzzling eyes.

Why is he studying runes? And of all runes why fire? Does he want to become an essential?

Questions piled up in Margrett's mind as she looked at Otis she had many questions to ask him but decided to let it go. Runes were merely runes afterall, maybe he just got bored and decided to study them to pass time.

Shaking out of her thoughts Margrett stood up straight and looked at the clock

Six-thirty Margrett noticed she woke up a bit early as she looked out the window and saw the beautiful sunrise. Margrett looked back at Otis who had gone back to writing down his notes.

"I'll be going out a bit early today, get my clothes ready while I freshen up." Margrett's voice startled Otis out of his seat and he sprung into action.

Margrett walked out of the bathroom and Otis stood next to a full set of clothes waiting patiently. After putting on her clothes and telling Otis his instructions for the day, Margrett walked out of the room. Otis watched Margrett leave the room and walk away before closing the door and walking back to his desk. He sat down and looked at his notes, his eyes were glued to the runes on the paper, his hand rested on his chin as he studied the paper.

Suddenly, Otis's head propped up and his eyes and lips showed a mischievous face. Otis ripped out a page from the notebook and walked into the bathroom. He sat the page into the sink and took a step back.

Hesitantly Otis's voice sounded out the word from his notes, "Imperium!"

Foosh! Suddenly a flame erupted, rapidly burning the piece of paper leaving black ash in the sink. Otis studied the fire and reached his hand out above the flame. When his hand contacted the flame he quickly retracted his hand.

It's real. He was mesmerized by how easy it was to create a flame out of a piece of paper.

These are the runes everybody calls useless. These runes are heaven for common folk and if used in creative ways they could even be used in wars.

Otis's creative and mischievous mind started to scramble at the possibilities of other element runes and even non-element runes. Otis looked back into the sink that was now covered in ash. He cleaned the sink and walked back to his desk. His mood had just become filled with curiosity and excitement of learning more about these runes.