Chapter 2 Part 1

As Christopher puts the bag of hazardous plants into his dimension someone seemingly materialises out of nowhere right next to Christopher's ear. "My my, don't see people with Spatial Affinities very often." Just as Christopher turns to look at him he disappears once again. "I was gonna try and steal some things from you kids, but it looks like it's all in his dimension. Maybe I should force you to open it."

Christopher scoffs at the mysterious figure. "As if you could ever get close."

These few words trigger Haider and Heather to get close to their brother. "How nice, a perfect invisible barrier, if i get too close i could have all my mana drained. I suggest you never let your guard down, boy." The stranger's presence evaporated just as quickly as it appeared.

"Who the hell was that?" Christopher says.

A roar erupts from the treeline. "I just caught his scent from Simon, it's dad." Heather says.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you stationed him behind us a ways back." Haider says.

"He'll be with us in a few minutes. I can't believe dad would try to do that to us." Heather says.

"I can. He's an expert in stealth operations." Christopher says.

"Still, even if it is father, we should keep an eye out. We don't have any detection magic to protect ourselves." Haider says.

"I agree, he won't go easy on us. It must be because of that letter. He could be doing this as some sort of cruel punishment." Christopher says, letting down his barrier.

"I don't think he was expecting Simon that's for sure, that may be the first mistake he's made since we've known him." Heather says, mildly amused as her soulustriousized leopard sprint to her. Simon buries his head into his master's hand.

"To think this adorable little man is a deadly boy is amazing." Christopher scratches the leopard's left ear and he starts to purr.

"Thanks to you little man, our dad lost his first brawl with us." Haider opens his hand and gives Simon his favourite treat, a sunlight pellet. The leopard leaps around the three in a bundle of happiness.

(Narrator) Has the leopard gotten bigger? Maybe I'm imagining it.

"Hey, I was thinking, why don't we race down to the gate?" Christopher points to Nestin.

Heather and Haider look at one another and Haider says, "Sure, that sounds like fun!"

"I'd say that's about three miles." Heather says.

Christopher draws a line in the gravel road as a starting line. Everyone takes their spot behind it and Simon's meow starts them running. Heather takes the immediate lead by riding on her vine leopard. About a mile down her lead is interrupted by Christopher as he opens a portal in front of her and puts her back at the finish line.

With Heather taken out of the running for now, Haider seals himself inside a perfect sphere of ice and rolls down the hill. As he passes Christopher he says, "Weeeeeeee!"

(Narrator) Pffft. Lord that has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen!

It didn't take long for Haider's ice ball to disappear as Christopher launches a mana drain spell and into it. "Nice try bro, I'm gonna win this race!"

Haider crashes to the ground and quickly gets back up. Not long after Heather flies past him on some sort of flying beast made from wheat grass. Christopher turns back and fires a mana draining spell at the animal and it plummets to the ground. The now dead bird cushions Heathers fall as she lands on it.

"This is much more intense than I expected!" Heather says, launching a vine at Christopher and incapacitating him. Heather takes the lead once again at the two mile mark.

Haider taps into his new Affinity and makes a snow ball and throws it at Heather. The ball hits Heather's ankle and freezes her foot to the ground. "Welp, didn't know what that would do." He says, racing ahead of the halted others.

"Did you seriously just cram a few runes together like that? You could have hurt her!" Christopher yells.

"Yeah, yeah sorry! I still can't propel my ice forward so I thought I'd try something like a snow spell." Haider says.

Christopher breaks free from Heather's vine trap and propels himself with an explosion from a physical spatial spell. The propulsion works like this, he leaps above the spell he cast and throws a small item into it, the resulting explosion sends him through the air, he protects himself with a blast resistance spell to minimise the damage to his body. The explosion also releases Haider's trap on Heather as a stray piece of matter lands on the ground next to her foot. The explosion from this fragment isn't powerful enough to damage anything other than create a very small dent in the path.

Christopher looks at Heather and lowers his head slightly to signal a temporary alliance. Heather agrees with a nod of her own and Heather sends Simon racing forward. Christopher opens a small portal in front of the leopard and he leaps through, instantaneously Simon comes charging through the other side directly in front of Haider.

Haider lets out a yelp and the vine leopard pins him to the ground. Still flying through the air Christopher allows Heather to run through the portal as a fair exchange for her help.

Here are the current positions for the race, Heather is in first, not far behind her is Christopher, finally sticking the landing, and with no chance of catching up is Haider, still pinned down by Simon.

Heather calls her pet to her, releasing Haider. She climbs on top of him once again and wins the race not long after. Three minutes behind her Christopher finishes and collapses to the ground, out of breath.

"*Huff* *Huff* It's been a while since I've run like that." Christopher breaths heavily.

Heather rewards Simon for giving her the win with a sunlight pellet. Her breathing is only slightly erratic. "It was a good workout for sure!"

They wait there for thirty minutes until Haider finally arrives, walking down the path. "I hate you two."

"Hehe, why is that?" Christopher giggles, standing back up and brushing himself down.

"Teaming up like that is cheating." Haider grumbles.

"No it isn't, there was no rule against it. Even when we did it during our training with dad." Heather chortles.

Haider scoffs at them and they all finally take a good look at Nestin up close for the first time.

"The air is so humid here, it's nice on the skin." Heather says.

"I honestly don't care, my lungs are burning still." Christopher says.

"Really?" Haider teases.

"Look, I essentially just sprinted three miles. No normal person could do that ok?!" Christopher angrily shouts.

Our trio finally gets approached by two of the gate guards. Both of the guards are lizardmen females. There is a very clear power dynamic between the two from their obvious height difference. The taller of the two is 6ft 4in tall. She is very clearly the more dominant one, such is the lizardmen intimidation dynamic. The other is 5ft 11in and she is very reserved and timid, she doesn't dare walk in front of the other.

The taller lizardman slams the spear she carries on the ground and says, "What business do you humans have in Nestin." her voice is surprisingly low.

"We're here to take a room in an inn, go to the library to research how things work here and depending on how it works here, study in a collage." Christopher says.

The lizard lady narrows her eyes. Heather notices a hint of mana usage in her stare. "I permit you entry into our city human, here are a few things you need to know during your stay. Inn's work differently than they do in Stocaea, you pay after a specified time. You book a room, say, for a week and pay after that week."

"How did you know we were from stocaea?" Heather asks.

The smaller of the two points to Christopher's blue cloak. "It's a colour used mostly in Stocaea, plus you came from the west. The border is that way."

"Stupid humans." The taller lizard lady says.

"Hay! How dare you say such a rude thing. We may be a generally weaker race than the lizard man but we are definitely smarter." Heather says, a blood red aura thinly encompases her.

"Calm down heather." Christopher says.

"You're telling me to calm down?! Rich from you!" Heather bites.

"She's scary." The taller lizard woman whispers to her partner. They slowly back away as Heather shouts at Christopher.

(Narrator) Did those two switch bodies or something? What just happened?!

"Look! Let's just get in the city and enjoy ourselves, ok?" Haider says.

"*Cough* You're right of course." Heather says.

The three walk into the city and the view from inside is just as magical as it is from afar. The entire district is buzzing, magic in every orifice of the city.

"It's almost suffocating with the mana density here." Christopher says.

A stranger puts their arms round Christopher's and Haider's shoulders and says, "Amazing isn't it!"

Haider craps himself and hides behind Heather. "Who exactly are you?" Christopher asks.

"Why aint you screaming right now?!" Haider asks.

"If he had any intentions to harm us, Heather would have noticed him from a mile away." Christopher replies.

"Mmmhmm. Anyway, to answer your question my name is Relov Janyl." Relov says.

Taking a good look at Relov he is a humanoid variant of a dragon newt. Meaning most of his features are human, such as pinkish skin and hair. Humanoid variants are much more powerful than their close relatives of the same species. Relov had two dark red curvy horns atop his head with a thick long red tail. He has bright red hair and brown eyes. He is a very handsome fellow with a strong chiselled jaw and muscular body. He is wearing a smart looking white buttoned shirt with long sleeves and black trousers with a belt.