Part 1

As the sun disappeared behind the trees, Jasko did one more quick check to make sure they were in a safe location to sleep on the hill. In the distance, he could see a few small goblins sneaking back inside the shelter of Kalen's Castle.

Jasko and his friends had been fighting goblins, bats and wolves around the castle walls for quite some time now, but they never seem to stop coming. And they never will. They weren't there to eradicate. That wasn't possible. They were there to thin the herd, and become stronger in the process.

Today seemed different than the last several. Korlok and Wendelyn felt it too. They felt a little stronger. They could heal wounds with less effort. They took on larger groups of monsters, and Jasko would have more on the way before the last few were dead. When they first started fighting at the castle, they had to grab one at a time, and often spent large periods of time healing between fights. It reminded them of how they felt just before they left Crushnell to head to Kalen's Castle 3 seasons ago.

It wasn't many seasons ago that he had his first conversation with his father about the way things were outside of the city...

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"Daddy, what's mana?"

This question caught Jak off guard.

"Well, mana is an invisible force all around us, that allows certain people to use magic. Where did you hear about mana?" Asked Jak, with a splash of worry on his face.

Most parents have probably already told their children about mana and protectors by the time they're 16 seasons old. But it was too painful for Jak. He wasn't ready yet.

"I heard a couple kids talking about it at school yesterday. Is it true? Are there really monsters outside of the city?"

"Yes, it's true. And I know how it sounds, but the reason we don't see these monsters in the city is because of the Protectors that keep them away."

Jak could see the look in Jasko's eyes. It was a look of intrigue. A look Jak has seen before. The same look his wife Lily had when the two learned about the Protectors as children.

"We can talk about this more tonight. It's first moon, time to get to school"

They talked more that night, and again almost every night for the next 4 seasons. They talked about the emblems that appear on the body of a Protector when they reach 20 seasons old. They talked about Jasko's mother, and the amazing things she could do as a Ranger in the Protectors Guild. They talked about some of the adventures she had been on, but Jasko could see how difficult it was for his father to talk about her. He could only imagine what it must have felt like to have mana coursing through his body, until one morning, he no longer had to imagine. He could feel it, well before he saw the emblem on his arm. A small bow. Just like his mother.

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