Bursting bubbles

"It's five a.m." Gabby stood in a field with Krillian standing before her. The girl looked as if she was forcefully dragged from her bed and lead out to the training area.

"From now on, get used to it. Five Am is when your training starts." the girl grunted, but Krillian didn't pay any attention to it. He could practically see the joy in her eyes when he told her that he would teach her magic. "So I heard that you'd been taught how to use the elements already."

"Yuh Denah taught me in her free time. She said that all witches learn the basics of elemental control before learning how to use spells or essential magic."

"That is correct. There are ten tiers used to describe the level of mastery a witch has gained. Tier 1 is applied to all children who have magic. Tier two is those who have learned to use the Elements. That's where you are as of right now. Tier 3 is for spirit magic such as telekinesis, channeling energy, and mastery of your mana. This is usually mastered during Martial arts training. How far along are you at using the twice soul style?" Gabby's face fell when the question left his mouth.

"I... I can't use the twice soul style I've tried many times, but my wolf always tells me that I'm not ready." Joe realized his mistake the moment she spoke.

"Don't feel down. That was a stupid question for me to ask, of course; you're not ready to use twice soul style; you've only mastered one of your souls." Gabby perked up at what Kie was saying.

"Wait, what do you mean? I've already mastered the power of my wolf soul and the emotions of my mortal soul; I should be able to use it."

"There's one flaw in your thinking, because of your hybrid nature, you aren't Half wolf half-mortal, your half wolf half Witch. Until you learn how to control your magic, you won't be able to use the Twice soul fighting style since it requires the mastery of two souls." Krillian sat down on the damp earth as he began to think.

"I'm lost here; what does my magic have to do with being in control of my soul?" Krillian looked at the girl and smiled.

"When Hecate created witches, she formed us by weaving together the energy of the universe. We witches are beings made of magic and energy. We aren't beings of the flesh. Maybe I should show you." Gabby was mesmerized by what she saw next. It was as if Krillian's flesh and bone were pulled back, and only his soul was left to see. His white Dreads glowed as they floated in the air; his skin was now dark black decorated with swirls of Violet, almost like tattoos or symbols, and his eyes were pools of molten gold. "In the beginning, we witches did not have a form made of flesh. We walked the earth as you see me now, but over time, we learned to cloak ourselves with flesh from there; we evolved into having both forms. But don't let your sink deceive you. Your entire body is also made of magic as well."

"What if that's not the case because I'm a half-wolf?"

"Don't be discouraged. You may be the first hybrid born of a werewolf and a witch, but there has been another hybrid. And if we take anything from the others, it shows that you are either a witch or your not. There are no in-between or suppressed abilities; You either have magic your you don't have magic. See as the fact that you helped me put up the barrier around the pack territory; you have magic and a lot of it." Krillian's body turned back to normal as he stood up. "For now, let's see how good you are with the elements. We'll start with fire."

Chris and his mother stood at the back door of the packhouse; they watched the two witches duel with their flames. It was beautiful to watch the hot red flames light up the night sky.

"Did you see how he looked before? Is that what they call their true form, right?" the teen wolf looked to his mother to realize that she was already smiling at him.

"It was stunning, wasn't it?" She could see in her son's eyes that he was captivated by Krillian's proper form.

"He looked Beautiful." her son answered in a daze as he watched the flames grow higher and hotter. Before he could snap out of it, his mother's claws were slicing through a fireball that was coming for his face.

"What the hell are they doing? I thought they were supposed to be training; it looks like the last Agni Kai out there." Trevor whipped the sleep from his eyes as he began to watch them, and it wasn't long before the other pack member was peaking throw windows and coming outside to watch.

"Well, it seems like we have an audience." Krillian and Gabby circled each other, waiting for the next attack. " Why don't we kick this training session into the next gear? You can use any element of your choosing."

"Fine, let's give them a show!" Gabby proceed to do a front flip as she did; she moved a giant slab of the earth with her hands and used the momentum she had gained to send it flying towards Kril. With an ax kick, he sliced through the slab while sending a blade or air racing toward her. With superhuman speed, the hybrid twirled herself in the air whipping the wind into a frenzy. It twists and curves, knocking Krillian in his chest and send him flying back. But this didn't stop the witch from getting back on his feet. In a flash, he twisted onto his hand a twirled his entire body, collecting the water around him from the grass and morning dew. Krillian flips back onto his feet, and with a sway of his hand, the water turned to ice and pierced everything before him, even the hybrid herself. The girl pulled the shard of ice from her leg, and with a ferocity she was not known for, she leaped in the air, doing a front clip while bringing down her left leg a stream of blazing fire was summoned forth.

The flames came scorching down from the sky, forcing Krillian to cross his arms over his head for protection. With little effort, the witch cast the fire aside, dispersing them through the air. But what he wasn't ready for was the solid bolder that raimed him in the chest, sending him right in the lake on the property.

"Well, it seems we have a winner." Trevor looked smug as the words passed his lips. Denah came walked up beside them. Her face lit with excitement.

"This isn't over yet." The teen pointed towards the water. At first, it looked normal to everyone else, but then the waters began to darken and twirl. Krillian rose from the center. Gabby tried to summon a fireball, but Krill was too quick; in seconds, he covered a stream of water straight into her chest. Before she could catch her breath, she was hit again right in the face blocking her view of Krillian. The witch quickly made a wave of water and rode it to shore. Just as his feet land on the earth, he promptly covered his lower body in dirt and stones. In one swift motion, he pulled his arms back, taking control of the lake's water, and slammed his hands together. The was forced out of the lake and flooded the area up to Krillian's and Gabby's wasted.

"Now this is over," Denah spoke up. Just as the spark of electricity passed over Krillians body. Lighting sprung to life in his hands. Before Gabby could realize what was happening. The electricity struck the water.

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Krillian stood in the forge room for the first time. He was practically stunned by the number one most of cobwebs and dust that covered the area. Though on closer inspection, he could tell that the dusty room held all the equipment he needs, and under the dust, most of the stuff looked brand new or even as if it was never used. Mel walked around the room covered Mel in furry pads. She giggled and rolled around the room but little did she know that while she played, the places were picking up dust and dirt everywhere, she went.

"Are you using your daughter to clean the room?" Alexandria walked in a while carrying a box filled with supplies.

"A smart parent always takes advantage of playtime. Plus, tonight after a bath, she'll sleep like the dead." Alexandria lifts her brow at the witch as the little girl rolled all over the floor. She could see a spark in Krillian's eyes as the young which was busy using his magic to remove the dust from all the equipment. It was breathtaking to watch this room she spent so much time in as a child come back to life.

"You know, when I was a little girl, I used to play in this room while uncle Tim worked." Krillian looked yo her with a raised eyebrow. "He wasn't my real uncle. We all use to call him that; he was a friendly old man, the only wolf that stood up to my father." the young which froze hearing that.

"I've heard a lot about the previous Alpha; I heard he was... a tyrant."

"I have no love for that man, so you don't have to tiptoe around what you have to say about him. He's a racist psychopath, a monster who killed witches just because he saw himself as superior."

"Good to see the rumors are true. You nothing like him. Nothing like that nightmare."

"That's rich coming from you." Alexandria's brother walked into the room. The alpha turns on her brother with anger-filled eyes.

"Calum!"

"No, let him speak, Alpha." Krill picked up his daughter and handed her over to Alpha Alexandria.

"You have a lot of nerve to belittle my father's name on pack ground; it's one thing for Alexandria to do it. She suffered at his hand, but from you, it's plain disrespectful and outright hypocritical considering who your mother was." by the time the words left his mouth, they had already made in out of the forge room and stood out in the open where all the pack members could hear. Krillian was frozen in his steps, and this made Calum think he had the upper hand.

"You have the nerve to call my father a nightmare when that was the very name everyone knew your mother for. Nightmare Defray! That's what they called her, wasn't it. Hide your dead, burn their bone because when the Nightmare comes, she'll force them to smite their own. There isn't a wolf alive who didn't live by this saying how many wolves had to burn up in piles just so your mother wouldn't desecrate their bodies and turn them into weapons for her people!"

"Every wolf had to fear one day smelling the scent of their loved one, their mate, melded into someone's sword so a witch would be able to fight a wolf hand to hand. She was a monster!" The pack looked shocked to find out that nightmare Defray was his mother. The whispers came in thick.

"You're all so quick to forget your sin, so let me be the one that reminds you. How did you all survive the famine?" there was an instant silence that engulfed the field, and many wolves bowed their heads in shame. The famine was a massive part of the history of the war 15 years ago. After intense battle after battle, many of the wildlife had either perished or relocated because the land had been too sacred from actions to produce food. Unlike the witches who could use magic to grow their own food. The wolves who survived off of meat could not. This leads many packs to starvation until one Alpha took drastic measures to ensure their survival. "How did it taste? How did it feel sliding down your throat? Or were you all too hungry to question it!?" the witch's entire body shook in anger as he turns on Calum?

"Did you question it when your father came home with fresh, tender red meat, or were you a good little boy who ate without question." he turned again but now on to the crowd. "You’re all so quick to burn me at stake for my mother's crime, but how many of you sons of bitches survived off the flesh and meat of orphaned babies. You sick bastards ate half my fucking generation and have the gall to judge me for my mother's sins!"

"We didn't know." one of the women spoke up with her head still down.

"You tell me with all your senses you couldn’t hear the screams of newborn babies being silenced one after another. You, the people who can smell the difference between a farm raised pig and a boar from 10 miles away, couldn't smell the difference between wild game and a baby witch? No, you didn't want to know. You all wanted to be able to act like it never happened and bury it along with all your sins, just like you made your entire history disappear. Your all cowards, at least my mother owned up to her shit."

"But..." Krillian's brushed his dread from his face. "The past is the past, I am willing to forgive every wolf here, but I can't do that if at ever turn one of you are judging me for the sins of my ancestors while trying to forget the sins on your hand. So I'll give this offer, any wolf who is willing to take my hand and step into a new direction come visit the forge tomorrow." Krill walked away from the wolves. He picked up his daughter and walked to the packhouse.

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"There's been a change in the woods we've noticed a barrier was erupted around the area we trapped the corrupts in," Maddox spoke; everyone except Krillian's eyes went bright in worrying. Krillian sat bored while doing paperwork and order forms during the meeting. The Alpha's eyes quickly went to the witch.

"You don't seem worried about this barrier Krillian?" The Witch quickly snapped his head up, finally meeting the eyes of the wolves around him.

"Oh sorry, Alpha, um, yuh no, I'm not worried at all. There's not that they could put up that I couldn't bring down." The witch scratched his head as he looked back at his paperwork and continued to fill out the forms.

"I'm not sure if you're speaking with Arrogance or blatant truth?" Trevor's father, who the Witch found out was know as Nathan, looked towards Krillian. The Witch signed the last part of his Oder form and slid it to the Alpha.

"You do realize that I am from the first coven. We of the first excel and are superior in every spell we cast as no witch in my covens history has made a barrier stronger than mine. Not even one of the catastrophe witches could bring down my strongest barrier alone."

"I understand that, but what does that have to do with bringing down their barrier?"

"Oh yes, I forget you've yet to see how we witches teach other witches. You see how to make a powerful Barrier; you have first to learn how to bring down powerful barriers. It's like how Gabby didn't know how to create lighting until I electrocuted her. You have to know how it feels, it's weakened and strengths to be able to create a barrier."

"Well, seeing as you are the best, do you know anything about the barrier." Sam hand Krill a file that contained the reports.

"From the information gathered by the omegas and delta's, it seems the four pillar fires within the clearing are the source of power. It's a simple fire barrier. It'll be easy to bring it down with its opposing element." Krillian closed the file and threw it in the middle of the table.

"Didn't you use fire to make our barrier? Is ours that easy to bring down as well?" Trevor's question annoyed Krillian when he opened his mouth; he once again doubted magic, Krillian's magic.

"What part of best barrier Creator in the world did you not understand. The barrier around the pack is so complex that it would test your very understanding of magic, and I'm not saying that in any arrogance. I created the damn spell, and I promise you that even I couldn't bring it down."

"If you can't bring it down, then what's keeping it up?" It was Gabby who questioned him this time. "From the bit, you told me about magic; I thought the barrier was pulling from you?" Krillian took a moment to look at the Alpha for confirmation. Alpha Alexandria nodded her head in confirmation.

"Firstly, the pillars that stabilize the barrier and hold it are not what power the barrier." Krillian snapped his fingers. The fly that was flying around the room dropped dead on the table. Gaby moved her hand and drew a pentagram with the fly in the middle. The moment she closed it, the creature went up in black flames.

"That was a familiar, wasn't it?" Alexandria asked

"Yes, and good job Gabby. I see you've been studying the spells I gave you." Gabby beamed at the witch with pride. Nathan snarled at the girl.

"Half breed....." his words were caught in his throat. He tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come out.

"Krillian, stop." the Alpha shook her head as she looked at the boy, but she quickly noticed he wasn't doing anything. Instead, he was too busy staring wide-eyed at Gabby.

"You're a quick study." Krillian gaze turned to one of fascination.

"It was the same way when I was teaching her the elements; she's a fast learner. She also has a wild temper, so good luck."

"Shut up, Denah!"

"Can we get back on task, please?" The table became silent at the Alpha's orders.

"First ill explain the pillars. The pillars are the easiest way to bring down a barrier; they are the foundation. Without them, the barrier will become unstable. The first two pillars are the witches whose magic was used to build the barrier in the first place. That would be Gabby and me; together, our magic stabilizes the barrier. The third pillar is what supplies us with power. Through the third pillar, the barrier gathers power from the belief and faith of the entire pack."

"How the hell did you get your hands on a connection to our belief and faith?!" Zane's eyes narrowed in on Krillian, but before he could even speak, Maddox had already figured it out.

"The pack warriors present at the time said that they watched you take the Alpha's moonstone and made her bleed over it. You used the Alpha's blood as a link to us and the moonstone to represent our faith and belief."

"Yes, and by sacrificing it in the spell, I made an endless power source for your barrier. Your welcome."

"You also gave yourself some leverage. If we did do something to you, our barrier would become unstable." Krillian rolled his eyes. In truth, he never even thought of it as a way to protect himself, but now that he thought about it this was the perfect way to ensure that his daughter had a future.

"Well, I can handle myself. The leverage is actually for my daughter because she is my direct descendant. She is also a part of the barrier. If anything where to happen to me of my daughter the barrier would weaken." While Krillian spoke he was already back to sketching to writing in a note pad. He completely ignored the giggles from Gabby and the smirk from Maddox.

"Kril, what are you doing now? I thought you were finished with the paperwork for the forge."

"I am. I'm just looking through the document of artifacts you have in your collection. Though it doesn't look like your pack confiscated anything compelling, at least not anything powerful enough to balance out the moon ore." A frown crossed over Chris's face.

"How much power do you think you'll need to balance it? Maybe if you tell us, we can help narrow down the search." Krillian looked up from the stack of papers as his eyes meet with the young wolf's.

"It would have to be something powerful enough to change the course of a large-scale battle." A look passed between the Alpha and her son, but neither of them spoke.

"Well, let's worry about that later; I'm sure Chris wouldn't mind going through the archives with you and Zane. What were the other things you were working on?" Krillian looked away from his paperwork and towards the Lunar.

"Well, firstly, I was righting down detailed methods of how to abstract the black sand. If you don't want to disturb the dead, you'll need to replace the same amount of sand with new soil. If done, the new earth will soon shift under the black sand and be turned into black sand itself. That way, you'll never run out. Then the sand has to be store in dark places away from magical artifacts or people."

"Is there a reason for that?" Gabby rose a brow at her new teacher.

"Black sand absorbs magical energy, and until a flame tempers it, it will continue to absorb mana from all things that surround it. The second document was to dissolve my bank account and transfer all funds into the pack account. It would be a big headache if I had to transfer money whenever I needed to order something for the forge."

"There was no need for you to do something like that. The pack is well off enough to have paid your ingredients on its own." It was the beta who spoke as he puffed his chest out in pride. A ding went off on the Alphas laptop right after Krillian took a picture of the documents and sent them off. The Alpha open her file and her eyes went wide.

"H..he has........ 70 billion has been transferred into the Pack's public account and 80 billion into the emergency funds." Alpha was shell shock, but everyone could practically see the dollar signs floating around her head.

"Krill, how the hell did you make so much money?" Malik's face was beaming at the thought of how well off his new pack was now. Krillian blushed.

"Well I was or am a witch for hire if the Alpha allows it. Before the whole mountain peak thing, I was Frequently paid to place protection barriers and wardings by all kinds of creatures. My weakest barrier costs a little more than 7 million. The more complex and powerful ones cost from 1 to 10 billion. Honestly I didn't know what to do with all the money anyways so it'll go to better used supporting the pack members allowances. Plus if I start making artifacts and teach Gabby how to make healing potions we could start selling them to other pack to keep the money flowing in."

"That actually a brilliant idea, if you don't mind me asking how much does the barrier around the pack add up to be?"

"Well first I would consider the complex nature of the barrier, then how strong the barrier is, whether it's just defensive or if it has offensive capabilities, how long it will last before having to be redone, any ties it has to my bloodline. All these come into play to categorize the level of the barrier. I would say that it's at least a 10th tier barrier."

"So it's a Catastrophe barrier, how much would you have charged for it?"

"About 70 or 80."

"Just 80 million?"Gaby asked in surprise.

"Oh hell nah 80 billion."