Remember

"Say that again you half-breed mutt! My friends and I didn't quite catch what you said earlier."

Marcus began to sweat profusely. Not able to form any semblance of coherent thought due to the overwhelming fear he felt, Marcus could only stutter a few words.

"W-W-Wait... I.. didn't me-"

"What?! Spit it out you little shit!!! You were so high and mighty just a second ago. Even had the balls to setup a make-shift barricade so we couldn't get to ya. Don't tell me you got so scared, you can't repeat what you said to our face."

"Oi! Geralt you heard it too didn't ya! He called ya a muscle-headed buffoon! HAHAHA!!!"

"Hmph. Why should I care what an ant says? You're the one who got riled up cuz he made fun of your height. Honestly, how could you let such a miniscule insult like that get to you? It sounds to me like the kid might be ri-"

"SHUTUP you oaf! Don't you dare say another word or I'll-"

"You'll what James?"

Geralt, the tall, robust man, towered over the much smaller man known as James. Geralt looked down on James like a king would look down on a criminal sent to be judged. The pressure Geralt exerted over James was so intense the latter could do nothing but cower back in fear.

After taking this scene into account, one would notice that Geralt stayed calm throughout this entire process. His facial expression hardly fluctuated, which was a huge difference compared to that of this 'hot-headed' counterpart, James.

While the two were having their showdown, Marcus could do nothing but watch in stunned silence like a deer in headlights. The amount of despair he felt was palpable and understandably so. No normal 13 year old would ever hope to interfere in such a situation. All he could do was wait in fear and hope that the man known as Geralt would either kill James or be too preoccupied so that he could escape. The odds of which were very unlikely, but a boy could hope.

*Sigh*

"Forget it. Do whatever you want. Just don't take it too far this time."

As Geralt said those words he slowly made his way back to the wall near the entrance and erected a wooden chair from the floor. The process was beautiful because even before the man was preparing to sit, the wood beneath his feet seemed to bend to his will long before he reached his sitting position. It was like a knight kneeling to a king, almost as if it was something natural and predetermined.

The act of seeing how the man wielded the mana to perform such a basic task was a spectacle to behold to Marcus and would have been even more fascninating had it not been for the tiny-orange headed monstrosity headed in his direction.

*FWOOSH*

Marcus recoiled backwards and hurriedly raised his hands to defend himself from the flames, but alas that did little to remedy the situation and only led to him receiving 2nd degree burns.

*Hisssss*

The smell of meat being cooked immediately permeated the room.

"Ahhhhh!!! P-Please STO-"

James quickly reached out and grabbed Marcus by the neck who now had tears in his eyes. A light flame layered over James's palm and the flames started to writhe around Marcus's neck. James leaned in close to whisper something in Marcus's ear as to not attract the ire of the giant sitting only 10 feet away.

"I may not be able to do much to him."

James motioned to Geralt at the edge of the room with his eyebrow.

"But I sure as hell can teach you a lesson or two."

The man was obviously nothing more than an idiotic coward. He picked on those weaker than himself and ran from those he had no chance against. Not to mention the fact that there was no way Geralt hadn't heard what he said. He just chose to ignore the man because he wasn't worth his time.

After saying that, James slowly turned up the heat on the layer of fire layered over his palm and tightened the grip on Marcus's neck. He entered a state of euphoria from seeing Marcus's fear and a wicked grin began to spread across James's face.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!"

***Some time in the past***

*crackle* *crackle* *pop* *crackle*

"-s!"

"-arcus!"

"Marcus!"

"Huh?!"

Marcus looked up from the campfire to notice a small girl sitting beside him on a log.

"Finally!! You just kept staring and it was getting creepy. You didn't even look at me when I was calling your name. What's wrong? Why do you keep ignoring me?!!"

The girl stood at about 4 feet 4 inches. She had beautiful short silver hair that reached her earlobe and had slightly less pale skin than Marcus himself. Her eyes were also a beautiful sight to behold, with pure silver irises and pupils as dark as midnight itself. The girl was the epitome of cuteness. Unfortunately, this cuteness was overridden in Marcus's eyes due to the insistent nagging the little girl tortured him with on a daily basis.

"Calm down Alicia. I was only in a daze. Can't you just shutup for just a few seconds."

The little girl's cute face immediately puffed up and her nostrils flared as tears began to form in her eyes.

"YOU SHUTUP!!"

The girl immediately got up and ran in the opposite direction.

*sigh*

And just like that, Marcus knew he was in for it once his parents caught wind of the cause for their daughter's sudden outburst. He decided to rush after the girl in hopes of saving himself from any punishment his parents decided to inflict on him for the sharp words he said to his sister.

After putting out the fire, Marcus followed after the sound of sobbing as he trudged down a dirt path that seemed to lead deeper into the forest they were located in.

As Marcus trudged down the dirt path, he caught sight of a small grey brick house in the distance. The house was nothing special, as it looked like any old normal brick-styled home you'd see in a fairytale book. It had two wooden window frames attached along the front edges of the home and a wooden door in the middle. It even had a stone chimney that occasionally puffed out smoke to let you know someone was inside. It wasn't much, but Marcus appreciated the view if nothing but for a moment before he hurriedly tried to rush to the door being shut in his face.

*SLAM*

*sigh*

"Here we go again..."

Marcus reached forward to grab the wooden doorknob but immediately missed the handle as he was greeted by two tall dark silhouettes carrying a small girl in one of their arms.