Chapter 15

Meanwhile, in a different part of the world a little girl was happily jumping up and down behind a window.

The girl seemed to be three years old and she wore expensive looking, white and golden dress. A golden bird was tailored into the back of the dress, which normally would look majestic, but looked just cute on the little jumping girl.

Her long brown hair was tied into a braid with a gold ring.

Her overall appearance was beautiful. One could already tell, that this girl would someday grow into a stunning woman.

The girl’s name was Alayna, named after the golden bird that saved one of her ancestors. She was part of a big and influential clan in this part of the world, the Novenicus-Clan. Her full name was Alayna Bea Novenicus and she was the only daughter of the current leader of the clan.

But…why was the girl jumping up and down a window, just to get a look at something outside of the room? That’s simple. Directly in front of the window was a giant garden, filled with countless beautiful flowers and trees. Birds and bees were flying around endlessly, living their small simple lives.

All of that wasn’t anything new to the girl. What made her excited was the golden flaming bird, which was sitting in the middle of the garden. It really was a majestic looking creature, but in the eyes of the three year old little girl, the bird was the most beautiful and magical thing she had ever seen.

She could only think of hugging that fiery bird and thus, her parents ordered the servants to lock her into her room, as the golden fire bird’s feathers and body could only be touched if one had reached a certain rank in cultivation.

To be precise, one had to reach the rank of King to casually touch the bird without risking injuries.

Unfortunately the little girl was barely on the lowest rank, which was novice.

After novice there was Adept, after Adept came Master, after Master General and after General came finally the King rank. There were more ranks after the King-rank, but the little girl didn’t know the names of them. It was enough for her to know that she needed to reach the King-rank to cuddle with the golden bird.

If you think that the novice-rank is only a little achievement for a three year old girl, you are completely mistaken. It would be great to find a five to six year old boy or girl, who reached the novice rank, but normally only children from eight years upwards would reach this rank. From this you can see that the little girl called Alayna was actually a super rare genius with exceptional comprehension and learning abilities.

Back to the bird on the lawn, which was, from time to time glancing towards the little girl’s window. If you thought it was only a wild beast you were, once again gravely wrong. The golden bird was as intelligent as a normal human being, if not more. And it actually liked the little girl a lot. In front of the bird stood a somewhat stern looking man with black hair, which was tied into a long braid, just like the one the little girl had, with minor, but important differences, such as an iron ring instead of a golden one. This man had a muscular body and stood firm on the ground, his back straight. He looked to be around thirty years old and his sharp gaze, seemed to be able to see through stone.

This man was Colain Aro Novenicus and he was the little Alayna’s father.

“How was the meeting of your tribe?” Colain asked the golden bird, without shifting the gaze from the horizon.

“It was just the normal pointless conversations, with a few news like ‘This couple got a little babybird’ and ‘This couple married’ and so on, without any interesting things. Wait, there was this one thing that was more or less interesting. Apparently five different coloured meteorites fell from the sky somewhere in the north. Not that it really mattered…” the golden bird said and surprisingly revealed itself as a female, with her soothing voice, which was sweet and pleasant to the ear.

“Hmph…meteorites!” was the only thing the man said towards the bird’s statement. Then he turned around, walked back into the house and closed the door. The bird didn’t seem like she was offended by this behaviour and silently spread her wings, jumped into the air and flew away.

Just like this the years passed and soon it would be little Alayna’s 8th birthday.

Every year the golden bird would visit the clan-leader’s estate, talk with him and exchange news.

And every time the little girl would sit or stand at the window, watching the bird with great interest. She had advanced into the Master-rank a short time ago, which meant that she was only two ranks away from her goal, which not only was the original idea of cuddling the golden bird, but got expended throughout the years. Now the girls goal was not only to cuddle the bird, but also to sign a pact with it, which meant that both of them would bind to each other, share life and death. This was her secret, as her father would never allow her to do something as reckless as this.

Alayna walked along the corridor, which lead to the meeting room. On the way she thought about various things, but most of them were the typical childish thoughts of a normal eight year old girl, such as ‘Should I ask the cooks for sweets or should I do as mother told me and eat healthy?’. The only strange thing she had on her mind were the different martial arts techniques of her clan, magic incatations, movements and even ways to safely kill a human being. All those things were part of her education and considered normal for a master-rank martial artist, even though it wasn’t normal at all to expect an eight year old girl to kill martial artists of the same rank as her, or kill at all.

Alayna suddenly woke up from her thoughts and realized that she was standing in front of the door to the meeting room for quite some time already.

She blushed as she thought of the scolding she always got from her mother, because of her daydreaming. She knocked the door and waited patiently.

After a few minutes, a deep voice was heard from inside, telling her to come in.

Alayna opened the door and stepped into the room, which was furnished with a big table and countless bookshelves. At the end of the long table a man with black hair and a golden robe was sitting, exuding a honourable but stern aura. It was Alayna’s father, Colain Aro Novenicus. He observed his daughter as she bowed in front of him.

“Father..” Alayna said with her calm and gentle voice.

“Rise, my daughter. Look at you, eight years old and already such a beautiful girl! I heard that you recently passed the barrier to the master-rank, I am very proud of you! As such, the gift I prepared for your birthday is not something ordinary. But…lets wait for your mother to join us first.” Colain said and leaned back on his chair. He signalled his daughter to sit down, then they waited.

After a few minutes footsteps could be heard from the door and a extraordinarily beautiful woman walked into the room, bowed her head slightly towards Colain and the sat down next to him.

This woman was Alayna’s mother, Lorelayne Amaris, who originated from the Amaris-clan, which was another influential clan within this Kingdom. She married into the Novenicus-clan after Colain won against her in a duel and after some years she learned to love him.

“Your mother is present, so I can finally reveal the gift I chose for you to your 8th birthday! It is….a spot at the Kingdom’s most prestigious Academy of Martial Arts. The Blue-Feather-Academy! You will be going there tomorrow! Do your best and make me proud!” Colain said with a deep voice, expectation shimmering in his eyes.

Unfortunately his daughter’s reaction wasn’t the same he imagined it to be.

Instead of being incredibly happy and feeling grateful for her fathers troubles to get her this spot, Alayna’s face twisted in horror and tears stood in her eyes.

“No I don’t want to leave from here! I can train on my own, I don’t need any help! I don’t want to leave from here!! Father, please!! This isn’t something I want!!!” Alayna screamed pitifully and her former calm and gentle voice was now high pitched and filled with fear and resentment.

“YOU WILL GO THERE!! Do you think I would go through all that trouble to get you a spot and then let you draw away?! It’s not important what you want to do! What’s important is my face! And the face of the clan! And don’t you dare talk back to me again! Did we raise you like this?!” Colain shouted enraged and a vein on his head was pulsating.

“…Mother…” the young girl sobbed and looked at her mother for help.

She was disappointed, as her mother only smiled at her apologizing, not opening her mouth to stand up for her. This shocked her and she stopped making sobbing noises, only the tears slowly rolled down her cheeks. Her big eyes were without hope and she felt betrayed. At this moment something inside of her broke, as she always was a very sensible girl. At this moment, the part of her, which was a happy little girl, who wanted nothing more than cuddle with a golden bird, eat sweets and live life to the fullest, broke away from her personality and deeply hid itself in her consciousness. The tears stopped and her former gentle face turned into stone. Colain didn’t think anymore about this and just thought it as that she had accepted her fate.

The next morning a carriage departed from the estate towards the Blue-Feather-Academy, carrying the daughter of the mighty Novenicus-clan.