Stuff seemed to start to come back to normal.

In the mean time Tom and Iuustin started to read a lot more and found out that in that world magic existed.

It was not as powerful as they expected. It was pretty much useless to the point that almost nobody bothered to learn it.

There were four kinds of magic: fire, water, earth and healing magic.

Fire magic was creating fire as big as a lighter’s in your palm once a day and water magic was creating a drop of water in your palm once a day.

Earth magic was the ability of creating a small rock or small crumbs of dirt once or twice a day to a distance of around 2 meters.

These were useless as they were and they were very hard to learn and not to mention that you had to keep practicing or all the time and effort go to waste.

Aside from the useless fire, water and earth magic, the one that was actually quite useful was the healing magic.

As its name suggests this kind of magic was able to heal wounds, but it needed a lot of training in order to be used properly and usually men were not able to cast such magic no matter how hard they tried.

Usually the ones that were able to cast such magic were women that had to train hard in order to be able to heal a mild injury. (Author’s note: by mild injury I mean an injury that does not need any kind of special medical attention in order to be healed, just so we are clear).

It was pretty hilarious to see Tom and Iuustin’s face drop when hearing these details.

They got so hyped that they even went to Maria to confirm at first and, then they found out the details. Their disappointment was immeasurable.

One day, Maria, when she comes back from work, she asks both Tom and Iuustin to come and sit at the kitchen table to announce something important.

Maria:”Look… This is a difficult subject to address….We really do get along really well… and you also behaved very well, but… “

Maria looks down at the table and Iuustin intervenes.

Iuustin:”Are you good?”

Tom:” Look, Maria, put your thoughts in order and we will listen to whatever you have to say and see from there.”

Maria looks at them both and continues.

Maria:”….So….I might have to send you back to the orphanages I took you from.”

Tom and Iuustin:”?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?”

Maria’s voice softens and says:”Allow me to explain. Since our country started to have conflicts with some other country, they pretty much cut everyone’s salaries in half so they can fund the army.”

Tom:”DON’T THEY HAVE SOME KIND SPECIAL LAW FOR PEOPLE THAT ARE IN A SITUATION LIKE OURS!?”

Maria:”Well….My salary is calculated to keep one and a half people alive. Since they expect women to have men that can provide more and they pretty much left us out.”

Iuustin sit’s up from his chair with a trembling voice says:”So what’s gonna happen to us?”

Maria:”Well, as I work as a secretary for one of the high rank soldiers in this town, I found a way to get you both into some kind of military orphanage. There they will train you to become soldiers and stuff. I think that there you would have a much more decent future after you grow up, than from a normal orphanage. I will let you both choose between them. ”

Tom and Iuustin:”…..”

Maria:”I am terribly sorry, but if you haven’t figured it out till now, I am running out of money to keep you both alive and well. And I need you answers today.”

Tom:”Alright, I will go to the military kindergarten thing, sais Tom under his breath, sounds like I have no choice….”

Maria:”How about you Iuustin?”

Iuustin:”……”

Maria:”…..”

Iuustin:”I… I’ll go too.”

Maria:”It breaks my heart to send you both there, but it is for the better for all three of us…… In two days we will part ways.”

They spend the rest of the two days as they would do if there was nothing wrong.

The day they had to go away, they wake up so early that the sun wasn’t even up.

They had milk and cereal for breakfast and go out without packing anything with them.

They walk without saying a word.

All of them felt a weird feeling walking thru the dark alleys, but they manage to suppress it.

They walk, and they walk till Maria stops at a building that had two guards at the entrance with a dark green bus in front of it.

Tom and Iuustin are a scared of any soldier since the incident with the man in a white shirt.

Maria walks both of them inside where they are hurried by a soldier to say “good bye”.

After Maria left Iuustin and Tom trembling in fear with two soldiers.

They are separated and put into different rooms by one soldier each where they are asked to solve a few puzzles while the soldier that accompanied them were observing their progress.

The soldiers seemed satisfied with what they did and Iuustin and Tom are being handed two green bags.

Now they are invited inside the bus that had a thin metal frame with a few windows on the sides where Tom and Iuustin waves good bye for a while to Maria.

Tom tries to reach of the ranch above him to put his bag, but Iuustin put’s his under the chair and seeing tha,t Tom does the same.

When Maria walks away Tom and Iuustin started to get bored and couldn’t chat too much since there was a man in the driver’s seat.

So they wait and wait till they over hear that a boy was going to come along and when he entered the bus he looked like he was beaten before he came here.

Tom and Iuustin felt bad for him, but they did not speak so they wouldn’t disturb him.

When it was almost noon the bus was full of little boys and girls, some noisy, other quiet, some oblivious to the situation, other seemed to understand that they were abandoned by their parents and starting to weep loudly.

Between all of them the ones that were standing out from the rest, beside Tom and Iuustin, were a group of boys that were bullying girls for their seats just to get up of them a few seconds later and push other kids off their chairs.

The bus was quite noisy and the soldier that accompanied the driver had to make silence pretty often.

They keep driving and driving till night falls when the driver turned on three light bulbs inside the bus, so the kids won’t get scared of the dark.

The bulbs had a blinding white light and were swinging around when the bus hit random pot holes or took curves. The feeling they created was one of some horror game that had a final boss coming after you into a house.

Tom and Iuustin seeing that it’s getting pretty late agree to sleep on turns.