Chapter 5: Oakhill

"Bellz! Lilly! Stay close to me!" My mother was trying her best to keep my sister and I check, but it was hard, because this was our first time leaving the large meadow our house was located at. This meadow was in the middle of the surrounding forest that I had learned was called the Twisting woods.

Just a few weeks ago I turned three and I learned quickly growing up these last three years that Dromos grow faster then humans. My sister who I thought might have been three or maybe even four years older was only one and a half year older then me. Right now even though she was only four and a half years old she looked closer to seven.

But now that I turned three and after some circumstances and incidents, we were right now heading for the village of Oakhill that was about a twenty minutes walk through the forest.

During the last couple of years since I learned to speak the language, I did ask my mother a few time if we could go to Oakhill, but my mother always said that right now it wasn't safe for us to go there. And when I asked her why she just said " It wasn't safe right now." And when I asked why it wasn't safe she said.

"There are some bad people living there right now, that's why only your father Ton can go there."

"Bad people?" That was the only thought that echoed in my mind after she had given me that answer. Because there was something else that made it really hard make sense of it.

My parents?

They are strong!

You see our house which is quite big in size has two floors, with the top floor having three bedrooms and a studdy. There is a kitchen, a living room with a fireplace and a long corridor with many doors to different rooms on the ground floor. One leads to a large dinner room one to a building extension that was a large training room and a few others such as a laboratory like room that seemed to have been left untouched for a few years and a few unused rooms.

But the thing I don't get and why I know my parents were strong has to do with the last part. We have a basement where we store food and that also has a locked room that my mother told me was an armory that my parents kept their old adventure gear in, from before they settled down in Oakhill. And my father Ton had once said "You know Bellz, when your mother Magdala and I meet, I thought she was gonna kill me!" He then showed me what was inside the armory.

There where two mannequins dressed in armor. One had a dark heavy plate armor with symbols of griffins etched in various places. "That's my old armor! I used to be known as Death wind! Hahaha!" He laughed his usual hearty laugh.

The other armor though, was completely different. It was dark purple but lost it's purple color when you shone the light of the tourch my father was holding up on it and turned a black darker color. The armor it self was made from some sort of scale or animal plating. It felt a little mystical looking at the armor.

"That was your mothers armor you see. She used to be known as The molten fury! And trust me when I tell you this Bellz, never ever ever make your mother angry!" He said with a serious look on his face.

But what really caught my eyes was what was hanging on the neck of the mannequins. It was some sort of necklace that seemed similar to a military dog tag from back home.

"Father father! What's that?" I asked him pointing at the dog tags that I now saw had the letter S of this worlds alphabet and the names of Death wind and The molten fury on them. It seemed to be made from some kind of bright blue almost green metal too. "That my brilliant son is an adventurers tag!"

"Adventurers tag!" My mind was racing when I heard that. "If I remember correctly from what Max used to tell me. In those shows he used watch adventurers had ranks and S was usually the highest!" My parents were monsters

So the question about those bad people was fair. "Who could be a threat to my parents?"

But last week Rachel came by to visit alone for once, she had left Maxime at home with her husband. I had overheard their conversation they had in the kitchen that night as I had snook out of bed to listen in on them.

"The crown Prince Erik and his entourage has left the village."

"So it's finally safe to go Oakhill. I don't have to be the only one to trade and buy goods anymore."

"Ton the only thing that you do now a days is go to Olafs pub when you go to Oakhill!"

"Now now Magdala...I don't go there that much do I?"

"Not that much! The last couple of weeks everytime you go to Oakhill you come back smelling of mead and tobacco!"

"Now I don't only go to Olafs! I do my responsibilities to! Like trade and shop and..."

"Last week I asked for a new cauldron to start making potion's again now that Bellz and Lily is old enough to be a little more independent. But what did you bring home instead?"

"A pot should work just fine that's why I bought it! I have made potions in a pot before."

"Ton Mephisto my dear husband...A COOKING POT CAN'T MAKE POTIONS BETTER THEN THE MOST BASICS OF BASICS!"

"Like I told you! I have made potions in a cooking pot before, they worked just fine for some easy healing!"

"First of all Ton...you have a great healing factor classified at A so even the most basic potions would restore you to a healthy state... secondly you don't even now more then the basics of basics when it comes to alchemy...and third... without an alchemist cauldron you can't make anything to sale!"

"Ba! It's not that important!"

"Not important...okay that's it....Rachel?"

"Yes?" Her meek voice was heard as the air in the house started to heat up and feel heavy.

"Could you be a darling and look after the kids while my husband and I solve this discussion?"

"Mmh yes? But Megdala make sure you go far from the house, we don't want to repeat what happened in The republic of beastkin."

My parents left that night and the morning after my father was covered in bandage and couldn't speak for a few days. I now understood clearly what my father meant when he said to never piss off my mother. And because of his injury he was left at the homestead instead, while the three of us, my sister mother and I traveled to Oakhill.

After we had been walking for maybe ten minutes we came across a large open circelar field at the side of the road that might have been about five hundred meters in diameter. There where no trees there and the ground seemed like it was made out of lava rock. And the trees at the edge of the clearing was clearly scorched by whatever caused this. The air still smelled like burned wood.

"Mother?" I asked carefully as I stopped and stared at the field of obsidian.

"Yes darling?"

"What is this place?"

She stopped and looked out over the field. "Your father and I had a small disagreement a few days ago." She said nothing more about the subject and started walking "Come now children."

My sister Lily and I just stared at the field for a awhile both understanding the implications of what our mother had said.

We caught up to our mother and after walking for a bit more we reached the end of the forest and was meet with the sight of a larg hill with a gigantic oak tree of maybe hundred meters in height growing at the top of the hills apex.

Around this three and all over the hill there was houses of different stiles and sizes. My mother had told me that this was a small village. But this was nothing but small. The population was probably around ten thousand.

"Now children there are a few things we need to do today. First we need to stock up on some general things like ingredients and materials. Second we need to..." The air grew heavy for a split second before she continued "We need to buy a cauldron for alchemy. And third and most importantly."

She turned and looked at Lily "It is time to go to the tempel of twilight to get your first Magic disc."

Both Lily and I looked at our mother both excited and confused.

"Magic disc?" Lily asked.

"I haven't really explained to much about us Dromos. There are good reason for it, but it should be fine now."

"Why? Who is that crown prince my mother and father were so afraid of?"

"Now let's find a park bench and I will give a quick explanation to you. And I promise I will answer what ever I can from now on my dears."

We headed into the 'village' and as we past by people of all kinds from humans to different beaskin most people greeted us but there was some humans who frowned, but my mother didn't seemed to care and just ignored the rude humans and guided use through the town until we found a park close the the giant oak and sat down on a bench.

"Now where to begin...Us Dromas are a part of a race of humanoids that much like the elfen races are also closely connected to the essence of magic. Magic is a huge part of our life."

"Elfs!?" I suddenly asked when I heard she mentioned them.

"Haha! Yes my dear Bellz elfs. But that is a lesson for another time. Now like I said we are connected to magic. The different species of Dromas are Inferma, Aqvata, Saphere and Geom."

She opened the palm of her hand and said "Flare!" Suddenly a small flame the saize of her plam was dancing in the wind as she kept it in the middle of her plam.

"You see like I said Lily is going to go to the Tempel of twilight to get a Magic disc, this disc shows you what kind of element you can use. But as a Dromas we know our primary element since birth. Infermas has the primary element of fire..."

"Aqvata water?" I asked her.

She looked at me with a proud smile and said "Very good Bellz!"

"So that means I have the primary element of wind then?" Lily asked.

Our mother grabbed us then hugged us tightly. "Ah my cuties are the smartest and most brilliant there is!"

"Mother I... can't breathe..." I struggled out.

She let us go before continuing her explanation. "But then you might ask if you already know what your primary element is why get a disc?"

She looked at us waiting to see if we could figure it out, but before we could answer she continued "It is to know how much magic you have and more easily see your limits. The disc displays a lot of information. And as you grow stronger in your life you can always go back to The Tempel of twilight or any other religions tempel for that matter to get your disc updated. Well almost every tempel..." She went silent before continuing.

"Well enough of that. Every child are allowed to get a disc at the age of eight. But us Dromas has a faster maturity when it comes to magic and can do it at the age of four."

"Magic! Magic! Finally..." My thoughts raced, even though I hadn't learned how to use magic yet. I had seen my sister instinctively use her wind while she runs through the house. But still just realizing that in one year time I would get a confirmation of my magic powers and maybe it could be time to ask my mother to teach me how to use my fire.

"Mother?"

She looked at me and smiled. "Yes?"

"Do you think you could start teaching me how to use my fire magic when we get back home?"

She pick me up and sat me in her lap and started to stroke my charcoal black hair.

"Of course my dear."

I was about to say something more when a burning sensation took away my attention as I saw a familiar marking of a snowflake on my left hand. And then it happened. A voice echoed in the back of my mind.

"Were am I?"