Kai sat, resting his back against one of the trees inside the village. In his hands was a book narrating human expansion into the vast Myriad of Worlds. If he was being honest, it was a bit dry. The topics were very to the point, but the central idea was that while humans were the newest addition to the Myriad of Worlds, they had been very successful in their integration and could be seen on many planets at present times. Although humans had made enemies of a few species, goblins were chief among them.

To his side, Shelly huffed and was fidgeting. She was growing more irritated by the minute, distracting him from finishing his book as he planned. Closing the book, he sighed. “What is it?” he asked her. He had told her it wouldn’t be fun, but she had insisted on joining him.

“You promised we could spend time together.” She crossed her arms, standing above him now, looking down at him.

“What do you call what we’ve been doing?” He asked. Had they not been sitting at the tree spending time together for the last 30 minutes?

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it. Gods... I know your mother said you were playing hard to get. But don’t make a girl work too hard.” She gave him a single arching eyebrow.

He choked on his saliva. Coughing and pounding his chest he cleared his throat. “What about Jacob? Don’t you like him?” He wasn’t above using his two-year younger brother to distract this clearly misguided girl.

“Ehhh... He’s not as handsome as you are.”

Kai sighed once more. Standing up he placed his hands on Shelly’s shoulders. He stared into her eyes with his most serious expression. Hers was full of hope and romance.

“Shelly. It isn’t going to happen. I’m not going to stay in this village and I’m not going to marry you,” he spoke clearly and slowly, hoping it would finally sink in. “It’s not you, it’s me.”

Tears welled up in her eyes before she pulled away crying loudly as she ran down the small hill and out of sight. Kai should have felt guilty for making her cry once again, but if he was being honest, all he felt was relief. Sitting back, he was ready to resume reading his book, now that all present distractions were gone.

Shit. Shit. Shit. I really should have handled that better. I’m supposed to be the mature one too. He took a deep breath. Even he was allowed to get irritated once in a while, but thinking back, he had definitely been too harsh. He would apologize and make it up to her later.

Not even five minutes later, he heard someone creeping up on him from behind.

“Ari” he guessed aloud.

The sound paused for a second before he heard, “Not fair! How did you know?”

His youngest sister came around the tree, her arms crossed and face pouting. Looking down beyond his book, he could see his sister’s foot tapping the ground. She was impatiently waiting for something as he tried to continue his reading.

“What is it squirt?” he asked, calling her by her least favorite nickname as he flipped to the next page.

She merely stood there, silent as he read. After another page’s worth of awkward silence, he looked up. His little sister had a wide grin on her face like she found something utterly hilarious.

“What?”

“You’re in trouble,” she said in a sing-song voice.

His brows furrowed while he thought of what he could have done to be in trouble. His head dropped when he realized. “Shelly,” he stated. It felt like an anvil had dropped on his head, lowering it even more. He didn’t want to look up, he knew his little sister had the widest grin on her face. At 8 years old, she was becoming quite the troublemaker.

“Yup, Shelly.” He could hear the laughter in her voice. “After you so brutally and ungracefully rejected Shelly, the poor thing ran home crying. Mom, of course, found out and boy o boy, is she upset with you.”

Kai let out a defeated sigh.

“I didn’t raise such a rude inconsiderate child,” Arielle mimicked their mother’s voice.

Kai felt a shiver run down his back. Although he knew she wouldn’t actively punish him for turning down Shelly, she always found little ways to get back at him for upsetting the girl. His chores seemed to increase ever so slightly, or the dessert seemed smaller than everyone else’s for a week. A little underhanded, but that was the worst she ever did. She loved Kai and respected his decision not to marry Shelly, despite her wishes for her son. It still didn’t stop her from trying occasionally.

Kai felt kind of bad for Shelly. She was a nice girl, but he couldn’t help feeling like she was being manipulated by their parents. He understood their parents’ concern. Shelly was an innocent girl, with eyes in the clouds. She didn’t know anything about the world outside their hidden village and as far as he knew didn’t have aspirations of leaving. There were others in the village she could marry, but she seemed to have her sights focused on him. He hoped as she grew older that would change. Perhaps one day she would leave and meet someone. After all his mother had left the village for some years and had met her husband, their father, somewhere in the Ashbourne Kingdom before moving back home.

He closed his book shut. Has nothing to do with me. He squeezed his eyes. Maybe I’ll try harder to get her interested in Jacob, they seem like a good match.

“Let’s go, Ari.”

Kai slipped the book into his pocket. Standing up he stretched his back and arms. He felt the blessed crack and popping of his bones in his old age of 13.

“Old man,” he heard his sister snicker.

He shot her a glare before holding out his hand expectantly. Within a second, Arielle’s tiny hand gripped his tightly. They walked down the hill, past the fields of vegetables and fruits. Instead of heading home to be stared down by his mother, Kai pulled his sister the opposite way, hoping his mother would forget by the time when he arrived home.

“How’s your training going?” Kai asked, interrupting the tune she was humming to herself.

Much like everyone in his family, she was granted a special present when she turned 8 years old. That present remained a secret to everyone except their parents. All he and his other siblings knew was she was getting trained by their mother. In what? He had no idea. To his eyes, his mother was an everyday housewife. Not that there was anything wrong with that. But she was a little sketchy on the details of what she used to do before she met their father. Somehow his sister knew and was training to do something similar.

“Good,” Arielle responded as evenly as she could. She was clearly trying to keep the emotion out of her voice, but Kai caught a little inflection in her voice.

Turning to her, she was obviously trying not to make eye contact. She was hiding something. Kai sighed, choosing not to pursue it. She would tell him when she was ready. Letting go of her hand, he ruffled her hair causing it to stick up in places.

Kai matched his sister step for step through the village. The village reminded him of his past life where the people banded together to make humanity stronger. It was something of a necessity back then during those very brutal times. Kitsune Village had a very rural feel to it and even looked like it. But Kai knew that looks were deceptive. The withdrawn and peaceful natured village hadn’t stagnated at all. No, it had been the opposite. For instance, they had working toilets. Something the people in his first life raved about, they always complained about how much they missed toilets and toilet paper. It was a marvel Kai had never known, but now couldn’t live without.

They had entered the manufacturing area of the village where everyone worked to produce goods for their fellow villagers. This is where the blacksmith, enchanters, infirmary, and other necessities of life were stationed. On the opposite side was the residential area, where his house was located, and where his mother was probably waiting.

Kai walked with a direction in mind.

As they approached a small building, his sister bolted forwards, slamming the door open as she continued inside. Kai shook his head as she vanished from sight. Following suit, he crossed the threshold into the small building.

Instead of the small, cramped space one who expect from looking from the outside, the inside was massive, comparable to the great hall where the entire village gathered to eat on special occasions.

His sister grinned upon, seeing him enter. Kai put his index finger over his mouth, signaling for her to be quiet, then nodded his head up. Together the two walked towards a group of adults conversing around a large square table. On the way, Kai spied Akane sleeping soundly. She was facing a lit fireplace while laying on a luxurious-looking chair.

Kai was stunned when his sister ran over to the sleeping fox and grabbed her. She hoisted the equally shocked fox up, holding her against her front much like a doll. Akane’s body from head to tail was about a third of his 8-year-old sister, proving the fox to be quite small. Kai covered his mouth as he began silently laughing but stopped the moment Akane’s eyes shifted onto him. Her brow twitched as she narrowed her slitted eyes at him. Holding his hands up, Kai turned away before Akane decided to give a shared punishment to the two for waking her out of her restful slumber.

He noticed the group was still talking. His grandfather at the head of the table held up a single finger, silently asking him to wait. He watched his grandfather’s eyes shift to his sister before they grew large with concern.

Even though the group was only a few meters away, he couldn’t hear anything being said. He guessed that one of the adults was manipulating the wind, so no sound traveled beyond a certain point.

After a minute the sound resumed. “We’ll meet again, same time next week.”

The adults began walking out, all ruffling Kai’s hair on the way past, making sure it was messier than what he had done to Arielle. He recognized everyone who had attended. They were all leaders in their respective vocations. Even his older sister’s enchantment master had attended the meeting. With no one blocking his vision anymore, he saw an accurately scaled model of the entire mountain with the village near the center point. However, in this model, there was no mist to obscure anything.

“How can I help my two cute grandchildren?” His grandfather said, drawing his attention away from the diorama.

Behind him, he heard the laboring sounds of Arielle’s footsteps, as she noisily trekked across the wooden floor to them with Akane, swinging side to side, trapped in the arms of her captor.

His grandfather’s lip curled with silent laughter before he turned his head away when the fox’s eyes found him. He coughed into his hand once. “Arielle dear, would you please put Akane down?”

“No thank you, grandpa. Akane is warm and cuddly,” Arielle pouted, tightening her hold on the fox.

His grandfather, Roy, made a religious sign with his hands and muttered, “by the Nine,” before he summoned two empty cups. He proceeded to walk over to a crystal container and poured some thick green juice into each. Kai swore he put something extra in his cup. Giving him the cup without the extra stuff, Kai gratefully accepted it.

Knocking it back, he felt the cool refreshing vegetable juice hitting the back of his throat.

“So again, to what do I owe the pleasure?” His grandfather asked, sipping on his drink, unlike Kai.

“Kai’s hiding from mom,” Arielle shouted before Kai could even talk.

Choking, his gaze turned on her. She had a wide smile on her face. Akane likewise had a fox-eating grin, as she still hung limply in the arms of his betraying sister.

“Still hasn’t given up yet I see.” He could hear the mirth in his grandfather’s voice.

“It’s not in her vocabulary.”

“I will talk to her. I know she just wants her children to be safe, but the choice should ultimately be up you two.

“Are you sure that leaving this village is what you want?” His grandfather’s tone turned surprisingly serious. “I know you have aspirations outside of this place, even this planet. But I would like to offer you an alternative. With your mother refusing to inherit leadership of the village, it must fall to one of her children to take my place in the future. Your older brother is unsuitable, his temperament isn’t appropriate for leadership. Lyddia wishes to become an enchanter with her whole heart,” he shrugged. “Kai. I believe you would be the best choice.”

Kai’s breath caught. What he was being offered was a fantastic opportunity, a safe life, one full of familiarity and comfort. One where he could live on in happiness and grow old. As desirable as that sounded, Kai’s very core rejected the idea. He wanted adventure, to enjoy the thrill of battle, even to conquer. Kai was a warrior at heart. Maybe there was a chance he could do something different but right now he didn’t want to.

He slowly shook his head. “I’m sorry, it’s not what I want to do with my life grandfather.”

His grandfather hung his head. “I already knew.”

“I’ll do it, grandfather,” came Arielle’s squeaky voice from the side. “I will inherit and become the next chief.”

“Sweety, what about your training with your mother.” He emphasized the word training, likely aware of what they were doing.

“I’ll do both,” her tone was completely serious.

Kai and his grandfather shared a look.

“You're still too young to know what you want. Why don’t we discuss this when you unlock your magic and see if you still desire to become the next chief then,” their grandfather placated.

“Please,” she said. She held Kai’s eyes. It was strange seeing his mischievous, clever sister, be so serious.

I doubt Jacob wants to stay in the village too. After half a minute she didn’t relent.

Kai smiled at her, and in turn, she smiled back. He turned to their grandfather. “What’s the worst that can happen?” he teased.

Arielle scowled. She had apparently been expecting a more positive endorsement.

“Your mother is going to give me hell,” he sighed. “Ok. Starting immediately, you will sit in on all future council meetings and you will have private studies expanding on topics not taught at that sham we call a school here.” He waved Kai away. “Leave us. Your sister and I must discuss some things which you aren’t authorized to know.”

Giving his sister a wink, he left the building and started on his way home to receive judgment.