A BROKEN BOND

Nyeren felt a sudden emptiness as if all his power had been drained away. He could no longer feel the magical connection that had always linked him to his other half.

He hunched his back and curled up like a ball. Wrapping his hands around his legs.

"Something is off." He kept repeating to himself.

A part of him was ripped away. Tears began flowing down his cheeks like a waterfall. He could barely breathe.

"Keep calm. I'm sure your other being is unharmed." Leomere tried to mollify him, with words of comfort. Sadly all efforts proved futile.

Nyeren kept mumbling the same thing over and over again.

"I can't feel him anymore... I can't!"

Naurin had always been his other half, his mirror image, his closest confidant and now...he's no more.

Nyeren felt pain, so intense that he could not describe in words. He felt his heart breaking into smaller pieces every second.

He was sinking into a dark abyss. The poor twin could only sob and cry out into the darkness.

Batch B were later to the training ground. Where they were unknowingly going to have the fight of their lives.

A match with the trollins was something, they never saw coming. The rules didn't make it any easier.

"What!? No! No!!." Parele protested in alarm. "Trollins? Hell no! This must be...be some kind of joke, come on guys laugh with me..."

Parele was clearly loosing it.

"Oh please, we don't have time for this Parele." Leomere said softly.

"So this is what my Naurin had to face." Nyeren thought. "There's no doubt that he's no more.

Parele had began to wail like a baby. Everyone was so too busy worrying about themselves, no one even paid attention to his troublesome rants.

"Leo!" Parele practically yelled, with bulging eyes. "I don't think you grasp the severity of our situation. No! I won't stand for this!"

Parele squeezed his way through the crowd and ran to Hogalbar. He fell at his feet and begged for mercy.

"Sir...Sir.. I want to go back home. I'm sorry I can't do this."

Hogalbar laughed loud and hard.

"You've had your chance, there's no going back once you come this far." Said Hogalbar with a creepy smile playing on his face.

"No! Please don't do this to me." Parele pleaded.

"Take him back! I'm tired of looking at his face."

Two muscular guards dragged Parele despite his struggles.

"Kid, you shouldn't have come here." One of them spat out."

"Now get to the back of the line!"

A sigh slipped through his lips as he went away.

"This is literally the biggest mistake of my life." He said to himself. "I'm too handsome and young to die."

"Try your best, or just quit if it's beyond you." Something his mom would say in situations like this.

His mom never pressured him into doing anything. He would always cause some chaos and his mom would just brush it under the table.

Having a loving husband, she could just sweet talk him out of anything. Which included not punishing their son, whenever he got into any trouble. Even if he went as far as picking fights with the elfs.

"Forgive him honey, he's just a child." She would say, pouting her cherry red lips. Parele was a complete copy of his mom.

"He's just a child, that's what you said when he caused a riot last week at gibbersquare."

"Let him be, he won't do it again. Right P man?"

"Right!" He would say, yanking a devilish smile at his dad and sticking his tongue out.

"Kory, you are the reason this kid acts like an overgrown baby. Parele I'll have the elfs snap your neckbone, the next time you try this again." His dad would say, shaking his head vigorously.

Too bad his mom can't get him out of this one, with her sweet talk.

On several occasions, kory would side with her son. Even if he was wrong, not caring about what the villagers think. They would always point fingers at her, for spoiling her son too much.

"Kory, you are not the first woman to become a mother! And you surely won't be the last!"

One wouldn't blame her for being so overprotective and loving. Too loving rather.

With marriage, Kory had hoped that one day she would also be a mother. She had a vision of herself with two or three children, the sad reality was that time was going by and nothing was happening. This matter really bothered her. She would have countless sleepless nights, thinking about the problem. Whereas her husband never really disturbed himself with the issue. He would always cheer her up and advice her to her mind off the problem.

"I didn't marry you because I want children, I married you because I want you."

But even saying this didn't help. She would have gloomy days and sit by herself.

With countless medications, herbs and prayers. Kory finally had Parele after 15 years of marriage. She was her happiest self during this period. He had the gibber's gift at birth, so this was a plus. Unlike most people in Gibbs farm; that only discover it later in their lives, Parele was born with the gibber's vines wrapped around his neck. This clearly indicated he was special and his mom did her best to show him that.

They weren't rich. However Parele's dad was a noble man, so he had just enough to provide for his family and make them happy.

Being a mommy's boy didn't stop Parele from fulfilling his duties as a gibber. He would go fencing and train with his dad twice a week. His dad; a competent swordsman himself, had instilled some good swordsmanship and fighting skills in his son...

"So...the crying didn't work?!" Nyeren joked.

"This isn't the right time to joke around."

"Oh! In all my years of knowing you, I've never seen you this serious." Nyeren blurted out.

"Uhh...we met two days ago?" Said Parele impulsively.

"Oh! Yeah." Nyeren laughed.

"Just leave me alone, you pig!"

"Look Parele," Nyeren responded calmly. "We are dead men. We might as well joke while we still can."

Leomere watched them tentatively as they exchanged mouth battles.

"Guys!" He piped up

They both stared at him and said nothing.

"I've lived with tons of them..." He began. "They feed on fear and nothing else, don't be afraid at the very least. I think this is the whole point of the test. FEAR so just...calm down. They're not that bad, they are just giant dummies. A good punch on the nose could knock them out."

Parele flicked a look at Nyeren

"Whatever..."