Gusts of wind pelted the boy, flickering through the gaps of his thin coat with ease and beating themselves senseless upon his chest. Normally, he would have just wrapped himself tightly, blocking the wind out with layers upon layers of threadbare, patched cloth. Unfortunately, bringing a cage into the equation made that idea quite impossible. Even though his jacket was at least three sizes too large, it could still barely strain shut around the two of them, only held there by the boy's thin arms.

That said, Parker had been through worse. For years, he'd walked the dungeon town's streets without a jacket at all, braving the wind and snow with only a roughspun cotton shirt. Those had been the hard times, before he'd been taken up by Master Lacome, and before Sorsha had been taken away by the academy. Now, at least he had two warm meals a day and some coppers to bring back to his family. It was better than his father did at least. He hadn't held a steady job since Magnus had been born, thirteen years ago. Instead, he'd drunk his family's way into the Fifth Quarter.

"The Fifth Quarter..." Parker sighed as he spotted the sign above the gate that led into his part of the city. Gritting himself, he took one last look at the winding road behind him and turned back to head towards the guard checkpoint beside the gates.

Nobody wanted to live in the Fifth. Even the nobles who called themselves men of the people walked those streets with at least a dozen armed guards. It was the same across the entire world. Every dungeon town was carefully planned, everything from the streets, to the walls, to the shingles placed along the roofs was carefully accounted for months before the first worker or mage broke the ground. The Nobles and Mages lived within the first quarter, carefully keeping their spacious manors and spiralling towers in the center of the city protected by three layers of walls. A lord's keep and a Portal guild's office would also lie here, if the city were important enough to warrant one. This would always be the most beautiful part of a city, with smooth tiled walkways that are swept clean each evening, tall branching trees to provide shade and cover from the elements, and magelights shining their dim blue light upon the streets through the night.

The Second Quarter was the Merchant's district. Sandwiched between the inner walls and the First Quarter's walls, Here liscenced craftsmen of all kinds created and peddled their wares. Every imaginable group was represented, from herbalists to enchanters and everything in between. It was here that Parker came sleepily every Solsday as with the young sun at his back, and from here he reluctantly left every Luday under the rising moon. The buildings were stout, but solid and regular. Each was two stories tall, a lower story that had broad open glass windows and opened into the street to act as a store, and a private upper story where the merchants lived with their families. There were no yards or gardens between the buildings, but the streets were wide and well lit by soft magelights for a few hours after the sun set.

The Third Quarter was the home each dungeon town's Adventurer's Guild, Mercenary Guild, and Delver's guild. In Parker's town, it laid beside the second Quarter, also between the inner walls and the First Quarter. It was here that the dungeon opened up to the surface, and the whole district was built around it. Hammers clanged from dawn till dusk as the city's battallion of smiths worked to meet the dungeon divers' constant need for new weapons and armor as they forced their way into the ever changing depths beneath the city. Wagons made their way across the Quarter, loaded to the brim with barrels upon barrels of ale, mead, and spirits for the inns that never seemed to empty, no matter what the time of day. Paladins and Priests bicker with battlemages while members of all races bustle through the rough worn streets. Ever child dreams of going to the third, of living a life of fun and adventure like they've heard of in the stories their mother reads them.

Then there is the Fourth Quarter, home to the workers and the guards. The Fourth was always an odd district, with winding unpaved streets presenting a seemingly organic growth of the citiy's populace. Here, the necessary aspects of city life took place, with grocers and butchers alongside rows upon rows of cramped homes. Each building was oddly shaped, and there never seemed to be two homes that were alike. Fitting in betwen the outer walls and inner walls, it was actually intetnionally built as a maze. Here, the city guard could stall any assailants that broke past the walls, miring them in brutal combat throughout the labyrithine streets until reinforcements could arrive or the more important residents could evacuate. It was hardly a fair position for those who made the quarter their home, but where else was there to go?

"Going to the fifth?" the bored guard asked Parker, hardly bothering to look up from his cards.

"Yessir," Parker mumbled, taking an inadvertent step forward into the alcove the guards inhabited to escape the whistling wind.

"Well get moving, filther!" one of the other guards sneered, waving him away brusquely.

Filther. Freak. Fifther. Fodder. All the other oh- so- clever names that had arisen to describe those who lived in his district. Parker hated them. He hated the shame they brought, the agonizing burning in his cheeks that was oh so different from the sharp stinging cold. He hated the disdain people aimed at him and the way they ignored him, as if he weren't even worth the space he took up in the world or the air he breathed in. Most of all, he hated his father for making him bear it.

The Fifth, unlike the other quarters, was not planned. It served no useful purpose to the city and wasn't even within the outer walls. It was a fifth piece to a puzzle that only needed... only wanted, four. Everything a person needed to know about it was in the name.

The Fifth was irrelevant.

The Fifth was illogical.

The Fifth was the slums.

The Fifth was his home.

In this city, it took the form of a few hundred haphazard shacks that spewed out from a side gate like sewage billowing out from an open pipe. Built from wood and whatever stone the fortunate among those destitute enough to live in such a place could scrounge up, they stood in stark contrast to the heavy stone and mortar form of the city beside them. It was home to the bottom of the city's underbelly, the sickest of prostitutes, the meanest of beggars, and of course the drunkards.

Parker, quickly made his way through the rough paths that passed for streets, taking great care to avoid the darkest alleys and the territories of the various petty gangs that bullied their way to power atop the scum. Fortunately, nobodly else was foolish enough to be outside in this weather after dark, letting him pass undisturbed on the worn road to his house.

All too soon, he found himself upon the front step of his house. As always, it was too dark for him to truly make out any of the details, but he had memorized the depressing visage he would otherwise see long ago. A single stone step, would lead up to a brown plank door that almost seemed to bear the weight of the entire house upon its creaking hinges. The house drooped and leaned forward, moving eerily with the wind instead of standing strong as a proper home would. There was a single window, an irregular orifice opening into the Grand Room, as his siblings liked to call the one room that acted as a kitchen living room and dining room.

Steeling himself, he moved to knock but found himself hitting thin air as the door opened inward before him, revealing a relieved young woman.

"Parker! Thank Enlil! I was beginning to worry! Get in here, you'll freeze to death!" She seemed to alternate between relief and worry from phrase to phrase as she bustled him in the door.

"Don't worry Mary, I'm alright. It's not that cold outside." he replied, turning to shut the door with his foot

"You say that now, but who'll have to take care of you when you catch the chill?" Mary grumbled, crossing her hands over her chest. Then, noticing the bulge in his jacket, she furrowed her brows for a moment before coming to a sudden realization.

"Is that...?" she asked leadingly, motioning towards the great room with her head.

Parker nodded silently, grinning as he pulled aside his coat to reveal the flickering fire elemental inside.

Speechless for a moment, she simply stared, entranced, as the small creature tilted its head to the side, quite clearly looking at her with no small amount of confusion.

"Are you crazy? How much did that cost! I hope you didn't..." she began to furiously whisper upon regaining her wits.

Parker merely set the cage down and grabbed her shoulders, interrupting her whispered tirade.

"It's fine Sis. Don't worry about the money. I didn't steal it, and I don't owe anybody anything. You know how much he's wanted something like this!" Parker explained himself, before gesturing down toward the elemental, which sat quietly in its cage. "Besides, Master Lacome was going to just feed it to the firecat. It's better for everyone this way!"

She searched his eyes for a moment, looking for any trace of deception before sighing and seeming to almost deflate as she slid into a hug against him.

"Well at least something's gone well today..." she mumbled into his shoulder as he held her up.

Surprised yet somewhat relieved that he'd gotten away with not explaining how exactly he'd come about the money, Parker gladly continued her change of topic.

"What do you mean?" he asked, letting her push away and move into an energetic tirade about the problems of baking a surprise cake for a thirteen year old who's too nosy for his own good.

Instead of listening, Parker just nodded and grunted affirmation at what seemed to be appropriate moments, letting her vent out her frustrations at the people around them. As the eldest sibling, she'd always been the one to take care of Parker, Kael, and Emma when they were children. Even now that Parker was sixteen and Emma was gone, she still acted as the mother in the household. It seemed so strange, seeing a red-headed wisp of a woman haggle over the price of food, or fiercely defend her younger sibling from the other boys' taunts, but she had taken the role with ferocity.

"... and father's come home drunk again." she finished, angrily.

"Again? That's the fourth time this week!" Parker exclaimed, indignantly.

"You know I can't stop him. Once he starts, he just doesn't stop..."

"B-But It's Kael's birthday! He's never been this bad!" Parker sputtered.

"I keep telling you. He's getting worse and worse..."

"Where is he?" Parker asked steelily.

"He's passed out in his room," Mary answered but laid a hand on Parker's chest to keep him from pushing past her," But don't. At least he won't ruin the Gift Giving by sleeping through it."

"Mary... We can't let him keep doing this. We can't keep working for him to just drink it all away!" Parker growled, an uncharacterisitic scowl filling his face.

"I know Parker. I know. But not today, okay?" she asked him meaningfully. "Today is for Kael."

Parker struggled for a moment, his emotions mirroring the elemental sitting beside him before giving up. He deflated with a sigh, letting the rage fall away, before looking up with a sad smile.

"Yeah... for Kael," he replied with a simple nod.

"Good, now come on and help me get everything ready you big lump," she began as she gave him a good natured cuff around the head, and turned to lead him into the Grand Room. "I swear you just get taller and taller every day..." she mumbled, causing Parker to snort with laughter. He was barely five foot five, nothing compared to wealthier men. (1.65 meters)

"Alright, I'll get the plates out. You hide that elemental in the pantry so Kael doesn't see it when he comes down." Mary ordered, sweeping into action as she grabbed a wrapped bundle holding what little fine cutlery they owned from a crack in the wall behind the stove.

"Where is he by the way, I figured I would've had to pry him off me when I got here," Parker shouted over his shoulder as he turned into the depressingly empty room that served to store what little food they had.

"He's back in our room taking a bath, at least that's what I told him to do." she yelled back, from the other end of the Grand room. " He should be done by now. Can you go back and grab him? I'll get the cake out."

Setting the elemental down behind a few bags of grain, Parker turned and walked through the grand room to get back to the main hall that ran through the house. As he walked down the hall, he stopped for a moment by the only door on the right side of the hall. Even through a solid wall, at least as solid as a wall could be in his house, Parker could hear the rippling snores. For a moment, he clenched his fist tightly. For a moment, he considered slamming the door wide open and shaking the man awake. He thought of screaming, of punching and wrestling, but all he did was think. As the snores continued, Parker merely unclenched his fist and moved on: the moment was gone.

Instead, he walked on to the only other door on the hallway.

As he moved to knock, he once again met only thin air as the door pulled open away from him and a blazing, freshly thirteen, comet slammed into him.

"Parker!" the boy shouted gleefully as he slammed into his brother, with enough sheer momentum to push his older brother back a few steps.

" Kael! Hahahaha! What's going on!?" Parker replied, as he playfully moved his brother into a headlock and gave him a light noogie through his tussled brown hair.

"Ahh!" Kael, squealed jabbing his brother in the side and bringing them both down to the ground in a heap of wrestling limbs. Parker seemed to have the advantage at first, age and weight both giving him the upper hand in their deadly combat as he sought to pin his younger brother down, but Kael played dirty, tickling his older brother or jabbing him in the ribs whenever he seemed to be caught and taking advantage of the momentary freedom to slip out of Parker's grasp. This impasse continued for a few moments, until finally, Mary arrived to reestablish law and order.

"And just what are you two doing!?" Mary asked sternly as she walked right up to the boys and crossed her arms.

Both culprits looked at one another. Searching each other's eyes for a moment, they both arrived at the same conclusion, the conclusion that all brothers inevitabely reached when they were in trouble.

"He started it!" both yelled in unison, pointing at the other and immediately turning to bicker.

"No I didn't"

"Yes you did!"

"Well you didn't have to noogie me,"

'Wel you didn't have to..."

"ENOUGH!" Mary yelled over the din. " You're both guilty!" she proclaimed, quieting them both.

"And for such a serious crime, there is only one punishment...." she paused, allowing her words to hang in the air as a crafty glint entered her eye.

"DEATH BY TICKLING!" She yelled as she dove into the gigling dogpile, renewing the war with fresh vigor.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The "war" only lasted for a few moments as all of the parties present eventually agreed to an armistice. The three retreated, panting, and rested their backs against the walls, eyeing each other suspiciously for any renwal of hostilies.

Then, Mary burst out laughing, ending the playful conflict altogether as the infectious laughter spread to the boys as well.

For his part, Kael was grinning ear to ear as he sat propped against the wall just looking at his brother and sister fondly. Today was his birthday, or at least the holiday closest to his real birthday, and his family was all together for once!

...

Mostly...

With that thought, his grin faltered. Father was one thing, Kael hadn't really expected much from him, but Sorsha... She'd always...

"Kael?" Parker asked, cutting into his thoughts.

"Yeah? What's up?" Kael replied, shaking himself out of his negative thoughts and sliding a grin back onto his face.

"Ya hungry?" Parker asked with a wolfish grin, picking himself of the ground and reaching out a hand to help Kael up too.

"A bit. I guess I could eat some sop if there's any extra bread," Kael answered absentmindedly not noticing Parker's smirk, and pulling himself up with the offered hand until he was upright, his eyes even with Parker's nose.

"Well I think we can find something a bit better than that..." Parker replied mysteriously, merely grinning at Kael's quizical look as he led him into the grand room with Mary trailing slightly behind the two of them.

There, sitting on the table was a small, round ginger cake. It was a simple pastry, without icing or fruits, or anything but the most common of spices: ginger. Barely larger than two fists put together and covered in lumpy protrusions where Mary had kneaded the dough herself without the aid of molds or proper tools, it would have been laughed off of any other table. To Kael; however, it was simply perfect.

" I know it's not much but..." Mary began quietly, but was interrupted by Kael turning and hugging her tight.

"It's perfect." He stated, closing off any discussion of the cake's shortcomings as Mary relaxed into the hug, tension and worry pracitcally flooding off of her.

" Well to me it looks like its getting cold fast. If only there was something we could do about that..." Parker mentioned casually, striking a pondering pose along with a sarcastic, despairing tone.

Mary rolled her eyes, breaking out of the hug with Kael and thumping Parker on the head. "Big. Lump." she concluded before moving to cut the cake up into three pieces. Once again, Kale was struck by Sorsha's absence, looking out through the window as if she would suddenly burst in, boisterously demanding her own piece of cake and clamoring to give the "Birthday Bonehead" a piece of her mind for starting without her. Obviously he knew it was a futile hope, she'd gone to the academy, leaving behind the fifth, but still ...

"Kael?" Mary asked, interrupting his thoughts as she offered him a plate with the Lion's share of the cake.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts again, he immediately tried to refuse the piece. "Mary that's way too much for me! You all should take more for yours..."

"Nope!" Mary interrupted, unwilling to hear any of it. "I worked all day to make this cake for you, and you will eat it!"

Seeing the fire in Mary's eyes, Kael quickly realized arguing would get him nowhere and aquiesced, taking the plate bearing the cake. He raised his wooden spoon to take a bite, but paused, deciding to wait until Parker and Mary also had their cake. Looking up; however, he noticed that Parker had disappeared, leaving behind an untouched piece of cake

"Hey, where'd Parker go?" he asked with furrowed brows, looking over to Mary.

"Oh, he's just getting something out of the pantry," She replied innocently, taking a bite out of her slice of cake.

"What's he getting from the Pantry? It's a bit late to eat anything else isn't it?" Kael asked as he mirrored Mary and dug into the cake on his plate.

"Don't worry, you won't be eating it!" Parker replied from around the corner, peeking the upper head out into the main room while conspicuously hiding his arms behind the wall.

Clearing his throat, Parker spoke up, doing his best impression of the Royald Heralds that sometimes cried out news upon the Town Square.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! I bring news of good tidings this Lunaday! Today, for the thirteenth birthday of the one and only Kael Rolfe..." here Parker paused, enjoying the warring confusion and anticipation flitting across Kael's face as Mary simply rolled her eyes at his theatrics. Then, once he judged the moment was right, he whipped the cage out into the Grand room proclaiming," A Fire Elemental!"

Kael's jaw dropped and he froze in surprise as his brother revealed the cage.

Like the cake, the elemental wasn't much to look at. Barely a foot tall ( 30.5 cm), it was vaguely humanoid in shape, bearing two arms, legs, and a head. That; however was where it's resemblance to a human ended. It's legs were short and somewhat stubby, barely two or three inches long (5-7 cm), while its arms were thin and relatively wispy projections that seemed to flow gently with the breeze. Its "head" was an ungainly oversized ball that seemed incredibly out of place on the tiny body that supported it and ended in little tufts of flame that rose up erratically, constantly shifting positions as a living fire. It simply didn't have a defined face, merely two dots where its eyes would normally lie and a bump where its nose would be. Instead of the bright yellow-orange of many fires Kael had seen, the Elemental was a crimson red, with mere tinges of orange flickering at its core. It was ungainly, it was confused, it was obviously weak, and probably wouldn't ever become some godly being to shatter the heavans. But like the cake, it was perfect.

Kael squealed with joy as he rushed to grab the Elemental.

The small creature seemed to startle, jolting away to the very back of the cage to stay far away from the boy who had run up to it.

" Is this...?" Kael asked as he held the cage, looking into the eyes of the small trembling elemental held within.

"For you? Yup!" Parker asked and replied with a cocky grin, as he watched the awe play across his younger brother's face.

"I..." Kael paused for a moment, excitement slowly being overtaken by worry as he pushed the cage back towards his brother," Parker I can't, how much di..."

"Ah, Ah, Ah! I won't hear it! I swear you're just like Mary!" Parker interrupted as he firmly wrapped his brother's arms around the cage.

"Hey!" Mary interjected, but was promptly ignored by Parker as he forged ahead over his brother's weak protests.

"No, it didn't cost too much. No, you don't need to worry about the money for it, and no I can't give him back or else he'll be dead, so he is yours to keep!"

"..." Kael, sat silently for a moment before sighing gratefully. " Thanks Parker..." he finally concluded before sitting down with the cage in his lap. A moment of silence fell upon the room as Kael just watched his Elemental, broken only by a slight crackling from the fireplace as the logs shifted slightly.

"And before I forget..." Parker interjected, drawing Kael's gaze away from the elemental for a moment, as he rummaged inside his jacket to reach the pocket sown on its inner lining. Pulling out a pair of gloves and holding them out to his younger brother, he announced" One fine pair of whelpskin gloves! We can't have you burning your hands off on the little guy!"

Kael's eyes grew even wider as he caught sight of the gloves, mutely accepting them with silent astonishment.

"Well?" Mary asked, "Go on then, put them on! Let's see how they fit you!"

Wordlessly, Kael slipped the gloves on, feeling the rough texture of the scaled hide as he tugged first one on and then the other. Brown, undecorated, and itchy on the inside, they were quite clearly meant for someone who valued function over aesthetics. At least they performed their function, insulating hands from sources of extreme heat like say a fire, admirably, reaching all the way past the wrist when sized perfectly. This pair; however, was clearly meant for a person with hands almost half again as large as Kael's, reaching almost quarter of the way down his forearm and hanging loosely off of his fingers.

Kael didn't complain. It was more than he ever thought he'd have anyways. Instead, he reached over and opened the cage, carefully pulling out the elemental and holding it out above his lap.

"I think I'll call him Blaze." Kael said, mostly to himself, as he watched the little flame squirm in his hands. These words; however, seemed to bring an instant change over it, as the elemental stilled and cocked its head, gazing almost questioningly at Kael's face. Or rather, Kael noted, at a spot in front of its face between it and himself. What could it possibly be looking at, he wondered, as the Elemental looked up at his face momentarily before seeming to almost shrug.

Suddenly, a sound rang out in Kael's ears. Accompanying the single chime was a message, written on a blue box that seemed to hover in the air, but only to Kael's eyes.

Congratulations! For having a Sentient Magical Being accept a name you offered it, you have unlocked the Namer Attribute!

Namer (Attribute) All words have a meaning, but only names reveal the truth of the world

Passive Gains: N/A

Stat Gains: + 1 To All Stats

Ability Gains: N/A

Skill Gains: Arcanus (Novice)

Arcanus (Novice)

A form of mana channeling utilizing names to transform and manipulate mana. At the Novice level, wielders can Speak nouns they know and understand.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Blaze, for his part was entirely confused about the situation he found himself in.

Since when could sources move? What happened to the Slime? What were those shiny things the sources traded him for? HOW DID THAT SOURCE BLOCK THAT? Why were some sources so much smaller than others? How did the source eat him, but he didn't die? Was that even how sources eat? Why was this source showing him off to another source? Why did the second source have weird lumps and longer brown moss hanging off of its head? Was it a different species, like an earth slime compared to a wind slime? What is this brown cracked wall? Is it some kind of stone? Why does it make him feel hungry? Why is this source even smaller than the smaller sources? What are those brown things the source put on the ends of its arms? HOW IS IT HOLDING HIM WITHOUT BURNING?

Unfortunately, as he was completely out of mana it seemed unlikely that he would be able to kill one of the sources and take its core...

Did sources have cores?

He sat quietly in his cage, pondering this important conundrum as the sources were making constant noise behind him. He'd tried to understand why they seemed so excited after he accepted the name Blaze, but after several moments of watching them hop around, make noises, and grab each other, he'd simply given up. It was strange how worked up they seemed to get about it. Maybe a name was an important thing to them, but he'd been getting along just fine without one. He'd only accepted it because the blue window had told him it had some purpose for other creatures to refer to him. He wasn't certain why it was important for other creatures to refer to him, but saying yes to the windows had never ended up hurting him.

Unfortunately, it hadn't seemed to change much about his status screen. It only changed the N/A to Blaze in the upper left cell with no stat changes or passive gains.

Name: Blaze the Living Essence

Race: Fire Elemental (Newborn)

Level 7/10

Strength: 10

Vitality: 15

Endurance:3

Agility: 3

Dexterity: 3

Reflex: 3

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 8

Willpower:3

HP: 300/300

Mana: 0/150

Stamina: N/A

Trait: Sentient, Clever, Hardy, Stalwart, Adaptable, Morphling, Forceful

Unallocated Trait points: 0

Skills: Pyromancy (Initiate)

Attributes: Fiery soul, Edge Dancer II

Effects: Fiery Soul

Unallocated stat points: 0

Ability: Second Wind II

Then again, that was better than having a negative change to his stats wasn't it? Still though, he really did wish it would have done something even a bit more impressive. Ultimately, he decided it simply couldn't be that important and returned to more important thoughts: Had he left behind three whole cores?