2 Smoke

Glare hovered above the homes of Safrin, Teffer trailing down behind him. A few minutes of silence aired until Teffer began to talk.

"Why… did you take so long… to come outside?" He asked.

Glare rolled his eyes, then responded, "Nothing, I was stretching."

"Oh… Why… were you stretching?"

Glare grunted, then abruptly landed in front of Teffer. A frustrated look reflected off of Glare's face, a look that Teffer scarcely saw.

"I don't want to hear any of your questions today," He growled "Got it?"

"Yes… got it," Teffer replied, backing away.

"Good."

Glare spread his wings again, then flew back up, this time higher than before.

Teffer had never gone past that point. He had never pushed Glare beyond the command to stop. Teffer knew exactly what Glare could do, and even though Teffer was probably stronger, he didn't want to push it.

The two boys kept along in silence until they reached a set of homes lined on the border of Safrin. The two walked up to one of the homes and Glare knocked with the back of his hand.

When nobody answered, Glare looked down at the crack between the door and the concrete stairs.

A quiet and high-pitched voice called from where Glare was looking, "Are my tricks really that predictable?"

"Good morning Kekler," Glare responded, looking down at an ant-sized gareni.

Kekler waved, then backed up and jumped off the side of the front porch stairs. As he neared the ground below, he brought his legs up to his chest and grabbed his thighs with each of his four hands. In around 2 seconds, Kekler went from the size of an insect to the size of a gareni at 18. He landed with a light thud, then stood up. Kekler was around a foot taller than Glare, but not as close to Teffer, who was just under 7 feet.

"Saw you two coming so I thought I'd try and scare you," Kekler said, "Too bad you saw me before I could."

"You said it yourself," Glare responded, suddenly seeming more cheerful than earlier, "you're predictable."

Teffer listened as Glare and Kekler talked, acting as if he wasn't even there. Teffer knew exactly what they thought of him, he had always known. Marsry had convinced the boys to let Teffer tag along as their "friend" for years, but because of Teffer's questions, because of his disability, he knew they hated him… Yet he would not say anything. He would not dwell on it. Teffer didn't want to care if people hated him or liked him, he just wanted to understand people.

"Come on Teffer," Kekler called, "We're gonna hang out outside the hall building."

Glare and Kekler started walking, and Teffer followed distantly, wanting to ask why they were going there, but remembering what Glare had told him.

…

Zora watched Salge and Lox fade as a late morning lake replaced her view. She stumbled for a second, catching her balance, then took in her surroundings. Lake Bero was surrounded entirely by trees and trails. Zora saw two figures on the other side of the lake, but she couldn't find anything that looked concerning.

Zora took her index claw to her most outward ear and pressed a small button, "Lox, when did this report come in? I'm not seeing anything unusual around the lake."

A clear voice answered through Zora's con piece, "Roah gave us the info before I woke you up. I can ask him when they got the call, why do you ask?"

"All I see are two people walking around the lake, should I head into the forest?"

"No, there should be a town nearby, fly around and look for it."

"Gotcha."

Zora spread out her wings and flew up until she was above the trees. She looked for the town but didn't see it. Instead, she saw smoke, and it was rising in the distant forest. She flew towards it, and soon found the town, a town with over a hundred homes, and most of the farther side set ablaze with flames.

Zora, in disbelief, brought her claw up to her con, "Lox, I found the town and there's fire, lots of fire."

Lox replied "What? As in, the town's on fire?"

"Yeah, at least half of it. I'm going down to find out why."

"No, no. We need to report this back to Roah. Salge will be getting you back to the Almer, find somewhere safe to land and we'll get you back here."

"Lox, shouldn't I at least try and help people?"

"No that… You know that's not protocol."

"I do, but I've always hated that rule. I'm going down to help, have Salge get me my tonfa and water pack."

…

"They gave you this!?"

"Yeah, it was my great grandfather's. My dad says he made it himself."

"Your great grandfather knew how to use human magic? That's incredible!"

"Yeah, I guess. But a lot of humans knew how to use it back then, at least compared to today."

"Can your parents use human magic? Or you!?"

"That's… not really how it works."

"Oh, whatever. Here, take it out, let's look at it!"

"No, I'm not allowed to touch it"

"Why not? They gave it to you, it's in your room."

"Yeah, but it's not really mine. They just put it in here since I'm their only child."

"Katelyn, who puts something in somebody's room if they're not allowed to touch it? We should try it out in the field tomorrow."

"I don't think so…"

Katelyn stared at the display case, thinking about that conversation she'd had with her friend. The scythe lay down on red padding, her great grandfather's scythe, the one her father had told her not to touch, the one put in her room because of family tradition.

She thought about her friend's words, and the more she thought about it and looked at the scythe, the more she wanted to touch it; Just for a few seconds…

"It… is in my room…" She thought to herself. "What if… I just hold it…"

Katelyn lifted the glass case and grabbed the handle of the scythe. She picked it up and was surprised at how light it was. It felt as if she could simply swing it with one hand, but she was not going to swing it indoors.

"No…" She thought. "I shouldn't touch this… I need to put it back."

SLAM!

A thud came from downstairs, then Katelyn felt a small shock in her feet. She dropped the scythe as a scream called, a scream that sounded like her mother's.

Katelyn left the scythe and ran to the ground floor, another scream following, this one from her father. Katelyn reached the end of the stairs and ran to the living room. She stood in fear of what she saw. Her parents were both on the ground, eyes open, lying breathless, dead. Standing over them was a yellow and light-orange spitron who had heard Katelyn run into the room. She stood and looked at the spitron, unable to move, too scared to move.

"You should've kept upstairs." The spitron said to her as he rubbed his hands together.

A static set of sparks started to form from his gloves, and he took the electricity and grew it bigger. Then with one motion from the spitron's hands, he sent it running at her.

Katelyn didn't have time to move or even think, and within seconds the electricity consumed her, sending her body into shock. She screamed then fell to the ground, just like her parents.

The spitron walked away from the three bodies and past the door he had broken. There wasn't a grin on his face, but he did enjoy this. He enjoyed killing the families of those who owed him, of those who disagreed with him.

He walked out to the front of the house, and as he flew up, he spotted another teenage girl looking up at him from the yard. He ignored it.

…

"Have you thought any more about the internship?" Eric asked.

The two brothers were around 4 hours into fishing. Matthew loved fishing, but unfortunately, it wasn't a career that Steelfur appreciated much. Almost no one in Steelfur ate fish.

"No, not really," Matthew replied. "I don't have an interest in that sort of thing."

"Well, yeah, you'll start off packing blades with me, but once you get enough experience you can apply for any position."

"The issue isn't starting off with packing, the issue is all of the positions. Everything requires me to do stuff constantly. There's no downtime, no time to talk with people. That's why I like fishing, there's always time to talk before a catch."

Eric sighed. He didn't care where Matthew decided to work, he only offered the internship since it would be easy to set up. Eric worked for "Vyn's," A jaltris weapon company that Eric had been employed at ever since the brothers' dad had died.

"Matt, let's stop fishing for the day. We'll take a walk around the lake and chat, alright?"

"Sure," Matthew replied, "We have enough anyways."

Matthew and Eric packed up their bait and left it next to their rods and an open cooler on the dock. Then the two started to walk around the lake.

"Matt. You know that Steelfur doesn't have any of the jobs you want. This town's known for blacksmiths and jaltris technology. Look, I remember you telling me that you don't want to, but when you turn 18-"

"No!" Matthew snapped. "I'm not going to Moncoast. I won't leave Steelfur, you're the only family I have left…"

Matthew turned his head and looked down.

Eric stopped and thought, then asked Matthew, "What if we both go to Moncoast? You can look into different careers. I can find a new place to work."

"Really? You wouldn't mind finding a new job?"

"Matt, my concerns are about you, about your future. If I need to find a new job, so be it."

Matthew looked back at Eric, meaning to smile, but he noticed something that deterred him from that thought. Up above the trees was an unusual sight coming from the direction of Steelfur. It was smoke.

"Matt, are you alright?" Eric asked to Matthew's stone expression.

"Eric, look behind you."

He turned and saw.

Matthew, dearly hoping for a yes, asked. "Is that coming from somewhere else?"

"No, no that's Steelfur." Eric replied, confirming the thought, "Matt, we'll discuss this later, we need to get home!"

And so, they ran, leaving their gear on the docks, sprinting to see what had become of their home.

They would never see that fishing gear again…