Questions, Bonds, and Roommates

While asleep I had a dream, and during that dream a huge bird consisting of red feathers flew down. I had drawn my sword in preparation for an attack, but the bird changed into a man with long red hair and gold eyes. He pointed at my sword and the dark grey steel shone in a bright blue aura before it dimmed again.

However it left new marking across the blade, of various symbols I didn't know along with jagged patterns. The gold wings of the guard seemed to bleed and now there was specks of red flecked into the gold. The sword now felt… alive is the only way to describe, but when I went to ask the man what he'd done to the sword he turned back into the red bird and flew away. The sword vibrates faintly before the symbols were once again hidden, but the bright blue jagged lines and the red specks remained.

I placed the sword back in my scabbard, and the dream scene changed to my core space. A bright yellow core floated in a sea of darkness, one hairline crack could be seen showing a dark grey. However what I noticed was how my fire mana was acting differently than normal.

Usually inside my core the fire mana stays red and I have to change it to blue as I will it out of my core. That had changed now though, the previously volatile and uncontrolled red flame had morphed into a roaring but contained blue flame. They moved quickly and with purpose, and that's when I saw the pattern.

The same jagged patterns as the ones that are on my sword. Focusing on that I begin to influence the mana, condensing and controlling it even more until the flowing flame becomes streamlined. The more it condenses the more power I feel from it until hear a thunder clap and see sparks of electricity begin to fly.

Feeling my sword vibrate once more I pull it out and the fire mana turned lightning heads straight towards the sword. Had I not braved myself I would have been flung back from the force of the strike, but I held in and watched as the lightning fed into the sword until it ran out. The sword continued to glow a faint blue, briefly showing the symbols before it stopped.

I could feel the lightning mana racing inside the sword, almost like it's powering it. I also feel I can mold the lightning mana better now that the sword is in my hand. I begin channeling the lightning inside my body and I can feel all my nerves burning like they are on fire. My eyes strain and the previous speedy lightning doesn't seem as fast anymore.

The mana particles in the core area are moving slowly and I feel, hear, see, and smell everything clearer. A few seconds longer and I release the mana outwards and like a frayed string, numerous lines of electricity shot out from my body and I could feel it winding back down and returning to normal. As it did I woke up clutching my sword tightly and feeling the hair all over my body standing on end. An exhilarating feeling coursed through me, so I immediately jumped out of bed and went to train as I didn't want to wasted this feeling.

Even with them being my first swings with the new sword and it being comically taller than me, everything felt right. The grip gently placed in my hands rolled smoothly when changing the grip. The weight felt perfect for me even in this small body, like it adjusted itself to its wielder. My 100 swings went by too fast but I still meditated immediately after.

Mana seemed to obey better and better, especially my now bright blue fire mana. It was now on par with the proficiency I had with wind, which seemed to gain a new sharpness as well. Before my wind cut like a serrated knife, ripping and tearing through its target. Much like the assassins' wind propelled knife from the market the other day.

Now it was sharper and more precise, like a razor wire being lashed out like a whip. Everything just felt in sync, everything took less concentration than before. It honestly felt like when I make a breakthrough to the next stage of core, everything becoming easier. But checking it I could still see the domineering bright yellow orb.

As my swings went on, even with how the felt at the beginning, I could only continually feel minor improvements with each swing. No stagnation like before when the first 100 would feel the same as the last 100. My morning training finished faster than it ever had, so I decided to check out the Sonic Hawk I had Vincent buy me.

Though he didn't actually pay the 1700 gold coins that the announcer yelled out, he still paid a hefty sum. Approaching the barn where we house our horses for our carriage, I see it sitting on the perch inside it's cage with a fierce expression on its face. I make my way toward it confidently and reach out to it with wind mana fueling my body, in some strange hope that it feeling my wind mana would put it at ease.

Though it's fierce expression lessened I could still see that it's whole body was tensed still, ready for anything.

"My plan is for you to become my bond, I feel you could help me out tremendously on my journey to become stronger." What caught me off guard though is that it talked back to me.

"And what do I have to gain from helping my captor, human chickling." Came the arrogant male sounding tone from the Sonic Hawk.

"You can talk? Hmm is it your sound deviance that allows that? No I feel like I would have heard about Sonic Hawk's being able to speak." I talked out loud but to myself.

"Most do not. Some because they cannot, and other because they do not wish to. However there is something about you that feels familiar, so I gave you the privilege of hearing one of the oldest living Sonic Hawk's speak. Now tell me human hatchling. Why should I help you?" He finishes while staring at me intently.

"Oldest living eh? As for why you should help, well to be quite honest I'm not sure. I can't promise you power, as I don't know if mana beasts can exceed their ranks. And if they could I'm sure you would have already ascended into A from your species normal B rank." I said offhandedly. I really didn't know what I could say to convince something that's probably already at the peak of its power.

"What is it that you want from the rest of your life, assuming mana beasts or specifically Sonic Hawks can't live forever." I asked the Hawk in return.

"Any mana beast if bonded with a human can live as long as the human they are bonded with lives. We do have a natural life cycle as well, and I'm reaching the end of mine. As for what I want? Well that is difficult to say. Most beings are scared of dying and others embrace it, i fall in to the former category." He said while looking out the barn door.

"Well then it sounds like you should just bond with me. If I feel familiar then as long as it's a good feeling, it sounds like you answered your own question. Life, that's what I can offer you, and I don't plan on dying anytime soon." I said with a wry grin appearing on my face.

"Hmph, very well hatchling you have a point. I will bond with you." He says.

"Before that, I do have a question for you." I quickly interject.

"What is it?"

"What is your name? It would make it much easier if I could call you by an actual name instead of saying 'my bond' and I'm sure you don't want to be called a pet." I said quickly.

"Haha, very true. My name is Tuk." He responded

(AN: pronounced like "took")

"Nice to meet you, Tuk. I'm Jaron Helstea, yellow stage fire and wind mage with a deviance in lightning and soon to be deviance in sound." I said with another grin. I could see his eyes widen slightly, well at least as much as Hawk could widen their eyes.

"I've never heard of a human child awakening so early, and to already be at the yellow stage. What are you?" He responded while narrowing his eyes again.

"If you bond with me, maybe I'll tell you everything. Also I'm not the only child that's already awakened. There's another who formed his almost a full year after me."

"I see, 2 prodigies born in the same year. Great changes are coming to the land it seems." Tuk said ominously.

"Well you aren't wrong about that. Now how do we bond?" I ask him.

"Open the cage, so I can make contact with you." Deciding to trust the old bird, I open the cage and release the chain connecting him to the perch. Once he exited the cage I could now feel his mana, and I could feel the familiar wind swirling around in him. He swooped down and landed on my shoulder almost causing me to fall from his weight.

Sonic Hawks were labeled at B rank not for their size, but their speed and the devastating effects of their sound deviance. Tuk was a 1 foot tall dark green feathered Hawk, with 2 inch yellow talons and and an equally yellow beak. His eyes were a dark black and were fierce looking.

"Now reach out with your will and I will do the same, since we both have wind mana it will go by faster if you use that more than your fire." I calmly nod and close my eyes, reaching for only my wind mana. Surprisingly I could easily reach out towards him with and I felt our to will meet where they briefly clashed before flowing around each other in unison until they became in sync and flew in tandem.

I could now feel his presence in my mind, and I knew if I wanted to I could speak to him without speaking out loud, so I did.

'Tuk? This feels great, I can feel the changes in my wind mana and can already start to feel the sound deviance bleeding through. Can you use a sound attack so that I can see what it's like?' I thought to him, and I could feel the nod he gave in return before a harsh chirping sounded off. It seemed I was protected from it, but the small rodents and even the horses squeaked and neighed respectively.

He stopped a moment later, but that's all I needed. Now that we were bonded I could feel and see how he molded mana and I watched as the ever flowing and breezy wind man, suddenly came to stop and started to vibrate and wriggle around as if alive. As it continued to vibrate it separated before they began to collide together creating the harsh chirping.

Collecting my own wind mana I attempted to do the same, but it fought against me and wouldn't easily swap from my sharp, slicing wind to a wriggling vibrating wind. That's when I heard his voice in my head.

'Mana beasts magic while similar is also different. Your wind mana is much more precise than even I have ever gotten. It's sharper and more lethal, don't try to reshape it like mine or you may lose it. Take from mine and add to yours.' I thought hard about his words which brought back memories of swinging thin and bendy sticks.

The way the acted like whips and whistled through the air, I don't know why as I don't particularly associate that with vibrating, but surely I wouldn't have thought of it for no reason. So I form my wind and begin to will it to slash faster and faster until I hear that whistling sound, and that's when I noticed that the air coming off the strikes was vibrating from the intensity of the swing.

Upping the momentum and having simultaneous slashes, slice just beside each other I heard it. The sharp piercing whistling, but more than that I could feel the change in my mana. My wind once more became sharper and faster, but now I had vibrating pieces that I could move around, so I tried moving it to my mouth and spoke.

"Did I do it?" What came out was a clear imitation of Tuk.

"I would say you have, hatchling." The Hawk chuckled.

I brought the sound mana to my feet and even when kicking at the ground or the wall it was muffled or completely soundless depending on my concentration. To my ears I could hear things even clearer than when I focused normal mana to my ears, hearing farther and in more detail. Which is what caused me to pick up a conversation happening between 2 people approaching the house.

"Rey, I don't know that's a very expensive looking manor. Are you sure we should be disturbing them?" A timid sounding woman's voice spoke, and I could hear the slight grief in her voice.

"I told you not to worry Alice, me and Vincent hit it off really well. I'm sure he'll at least see if I'm capable of the job." Hearing the words "Rey" and then finally "Alice" confirmed it, Arthur's parents were here.

'Tuk, I'm going to go talk to them. You're free to fly around, but please come back at sunset. You won't be confined to a cage as my bond, I hope one day to be good friends with you as I'm sure there is lots you could teach me.' The Hawk looked down at me, for a few brief seconds before flying off.

'I will be back hatchling. Reach out to me if you require my assistance.' He responded before he shot off at top speed to a small forest situated near our home. Now I dashed off to meet my future roommates.

They were almost halfway to the manor when Rey saw me running towards them, they both paused and looked at each other before turning back towards me. They acted normal until Rey had a confused look on his face and so did Alice and then I realized why. I had been unconsciously cushioning my steps with wind mana, so they were probably confused why they couldn't hear me approaching even though I was running.

I forcefully removed the wind mana from my feet, but unfortunately that got another reaction. Canceling mana is just like activating mana, any mage can tell. This bracelet only prevents people from seeing my core and mana flow as long as I'm not using any mana, or if I am I keep it at a steady flow. Oh well, I know what kind of people they are, and while I have my own grievances with the way they treat Arthur later in the story I still know that I can trust them.

Stopping about 10 feet away, I look at both of them up and down before Reynolds steps forward and speaks.

"I'm Reynolds Leywin. Is Vincent Helstea around?" I look at him and focus on his mana core, seems he really is only a light red stage right now. However I'm sure I can still learn unarmed combat and some other fire augmenter abilities. I nod before speaking.

"Yes, father is currently inside. Should I tell him you're here?" This seems to cause flashes of grief to cross both their faces, lingering longer on Alice's. I guess my more refined speech coming from a child's body reminds them of Arthur, or it could just be because we're the same age.

"So Tabitha had a healthy boy. That's good, you seem strong too." Reynolds shook off the grief and spoke again.

"Ah no. Mother had a healthy daughter." They both faltered a second looking me up and down before looking at each other and I sighed at the misunderstanding.

"No I'm not their daughter, I'm their adopted son." I clarified and they both had embarrassed faces.

"Forgive us, but you are quite beautiful." Alice said apologetically. I just sigh again before turning to the manor.

"Well either way follow me, father already saw you from the window and is heading down." I said over my shoulder.

"Wha- how do you know that?" Reynolds asked shocked.

"Hmm? Oh I thought you already noticed. I am a mage after all." I turn around and they both had shocked faces, but also more of an expected shock. As in they had suspicions I might be, but weren't positive.

"But how old are you?" Alice asked first.

"I guess I might as well introduce myself. I am Jaron Helstea, light yellow core fire and wind augmenter with deviances in lightning and sound as of today. I specialize in swordsmanship, but hope to learn more unarmed combat techniques. Oh and I'll turn 5 on May 30th." I said with a nod of my head at the end, while I was talking their faces became more and more shocked.

"A light yellow at 4 and half years old?" Rey mumbled out, but Alice's had already changed to a grief stricken expression as she thought about Arthur and how she wouldn't get to celebrate his birthday.

"Reynolds?! Is that you?" And here comes Vincent.

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Author's Note

Upload notice: Saturday and Sunday were my days off that's why I was able to put out the amount of chapters I did. I'll still try to upload at least 1 chap on my work days, but if one doesn't get uploaded I apologize. My next days off are Thursday and Friday, so next time I'll just stockpile some if I'm not able to get a chapter out each day that I work. Unless you all would prefer the 2-3 chapters each day off. Let me know.

Ran a bit long, but I really wanted to go ahead and set up more stuff with the sword, get the sound deviance from Tuk and meet the Leywins. And let me say he learned the sound deviance so "fast" because he had been on the cusp of it for over a year now and just needed a nudge, same with lightning, but the way he got that was a little different. Which will be expanded upon later down the line, along with why Tuk said he felt familiar.

We'll have more of a meeting with the Leywins next chapter as they meet the rest of the Helstea family and question Vincent about Jaron. Then I'm thinking it's getting to about time for another time skip.

Also how people acquire deviances in the book is never really explained from what I remember. They either awaken them or they don't, but I felt like adding a little bit to it so it felt like it happened because of something they do. Hopefully it made sense and if not I apologize. Same with bonds, they just seem to have a bond or get the bond the next day. The only one we see form is Arthur and Sylvie, but that's different as she's not really a mana beast. So once again I made it up.

Thanks for reading.

-SocioPhobia