Painting Competition

After his breakthrough to the intermediate stage, his life became calm and repetitive. He trained and meditated. He continued to learn painting and the flute. Thraec even began to teach him level one engravings for level one magic tools. His improvement in his occupations was slow but steady with a firm foundation. His magic, on the other hand, continued improving at a breakneck pace. One year allowed him to break through to the intermediate level stage four. The initial breakthrough to the intermediate level is the hardest part, but afterwards, until the breakthrough to the advanced level, going through the stages depends on your body's ability to absorb mana. After his elf and dragon bloodline awakened, his mana absorption multiplied by 3.

One year. It seemed like such a long time before to Greyson, but, after spending his sixth year at the Academy, he realized that one year was gone in just a moment. Before, at the church, he had nothing to do. At the Academy, he suddenly had too much to do to fit in one day. Day by day would pass by as he kept himself completely busy learning new things every day.

At 7-years-old, Greyson had done a good amount of growing. His body was still on the leaner side, however, his height had increased. He never got around to cutting his hair and soon just got used to it being long as Lyle would braid it for him. One year couldn't do much for him in terms of his girly features which left him feeling depressed. Greyson felt he could only wait until he hit his teens for his more handsome features to grow in. If anything, most people around him felt that his beauty grew. Thankfully, one year allowed most people in the Academy City to know and recognize him as a boy so no one bothered him anymore. Carlyle had even allowed him to open for one of his concerts and he had played one of Carlyle's original pieces. He had a little bit of fame in the city now for his flute playing. Carlyle was pretty satisfied with his level after a year of playing. Greyson knew he was not amazing, but he was at least decent after all his hard training and practice.

This morning, Greyson woke up nice and early and walked over to the painting workshop to meet with Castiel. He walked over like any normal day and pulled up a blank canvas while sitting next to his teacher. Silent as usual, they continued painting in peace. Greyson was finally allowed to paint still objects like fruit and landscape for this past year, while Castiel would throw it in the trash if it was not up-to-standard. Although his painting teacher was normally quiet and gentle, he was a harsh demon when it came to painting. Greyson would always feel slight heartbreak when he saw a week's worth of time painting just thrown away and burned to ashes in the fireplace. Only three paintings managed to stay away from the fire.

His last two lessons, Greyson decided to paint the church back at home. He was feeling nostalgic and started to miss everyone, even that annoying kid Wolf. His brush moved fluidly as the memories came rushing back. The painting was finally finished after today's lesson. Looking over it, even an amateur like Greyson could feel there was something different about this time's painting. The church's atmosphere shone through the canvas, as if people could imagine themselves at this peaceful, yet slightly rundown church. His eyes shining, he waited for his teacher to finish his painting so that he could look over this church painting.

Minutes ticked by before Castiel placed down his brush and finished a breathtaking waterfall scenery. Greyson felt envy and amazement every time he looked at his teacher's painting ability. The silence of his mouth is made up in the expression of his art. Castiel sighed in regret as something in the painting displeased him and quickly threw it into the fire to burn away. Greyson also shook his head in regret feeling his teacher was such a perfectionist. After this action, Castiel cast his eyes onto Greyson's painting and his eyes lit up with surprise. His face broke out into a warm smile as he picked up the painting and nodded his head in approval. Greyson released a sigh of relief as he felt his teacher's happiness. Next thing he knew, a painting association notice was placed in front of his face. Moving back in surprise, he let his eyes focus as he read the words on the notice: "Junior Painting Competition."

"Teacher, you want me to participate in this?" He asked in shock. Castiel nodded his head and smiled. His teacher's suggestion made pride well up. Closely looking at the competition flyer this time, he read all of it. The competition was for apprentices in the association ages 14 and below. It was a large competition that originated from the Dalia Kingdom capital's painting association. It started as a competition in the big cities' associations and then the finalist's painting would be sent to the capital for final judging. The topic was "Love." Looking at the topic, Greyson furrowed his brows. Love? That was a difficult topic for him and he would have to think hard about what he would paint. The painting association in Academy City would be judging the paintings in 2 weeks. He decided he would put all his effort in to at least winning this minor competition. He knew there were many talents in the Dalia Kingdom so he probably wouldn't win the whole competition, but he felt if he could paint something like the church painting today then he could beat the other apprentices in the city.

...

Greyson informed his teachers that these two weeks he would be concentrating completely on his painting so he wouldn't be showing up for his lessons. He even paused his meditation. After 1 week of painting and discarding things that came to mind, Greyson decided he would paint a portrait of Sister Lily. She was closest person he had for familial love which he had. One full week of painting trial and error ended with one beautiful painting that Greyson was finally satisfied with. Sister Lily was without her nun robes around her head and just had gotten ready to sleep. The face on the portrait was his favorite. Her warm smile as she tucked him in for bed. Lily was objectively plain looking, but, in Greyson's imagination, her inner beauty mesmerized people. The warm smile and loving eyes reflected through the painting and grabbed the onlooker's attention.

Lyle walked in behind Greyson and looked over at the painting before he stopped in amazement. These two weeks, Greyson had been taking up the living space in their dorm, so Lyle had observed all his earlier paintings as well.

"Grey, this one is amazing! Who is it?" He asked in wonder.

"Sister Lily." He smiled.

" I don't know anything about painting, but I can feel her love for you through the painting. Looking at her face reminds me of my mother. It really brings out a warm and comforting feeling. I think everyone could relate. What will you call it?"

"'A Mother's Smile'" Hearing the title, Lyle nodded in agreement. He felt the title was perfect. Greyson finished the painting by drawing his signature on the bottom right corner. Half a year ago, he decided on his signature. It was Zephyr! He would draw a small silver scaled, purple-eyed dragon on the corner of all his paintings. Lucius had assumed if it was an animal, Greyson would have chosen him, so after finding out it was Zephyr he was upset for a while. Greyson was helpless with Lucius's immaturity so in the end he promised that on his favorite painting he would sign it with a picture of Lucius instead. That would make Lucius's signature rare and more special. Seemingly pleased with this change, Lucius let the issue go.

The two week period quickly came to an end and Greyson wrapped up his canvas and turned it in. He hadn't even shown his teacher and wanted the painting to be a surprise. Hearing Lyle's opinion gave him a lot more confidence. If someone with no painting knowledge could feel his message then he believed that he had done his job. After handing his painting over, Greyson was filled with a sense of anxiety. Now he would have to wait another week before the results were given.

A week... Suddenly a short period of time felt like months. He went back to his lessons, however, his teachers just told him to take the next week off as well because it was obvious that he was unable to concentrate. Morning and night came and went as Greyson impatiently waited for any news. On the seventh day, Lyle came bursting into the dorm room.

"Grey, there's a letter for you! It says it's from the painting association!"