While these nine months had passed, me and Elaine had grown a lot closer as well. The more we had spent time together, I came to figure that she's a very unpresuming girl, including quiet too. Furthermore, Elaine used to be shy, but she's opening up a lot... although she still has her bashful moments. Still, I can't help but ponder about what occurred when she was younger...it seemed to have affected her quite a good amount.

Right now, I was clothing myself, preparing to meet my supposed master. I wore a blue tank top and baggy black trousers, tucked into a pair of boots. I looked at myself in the mirror on my brown dresser, remarking my golden hair that flowed down to my upper neck now. Next, I traversed downstairs and grabbed my black bag near the white couch in the living room.

Mom and dad approached me as they exited the hallway near the living room. Dad had on his usual all black attire being at home, and mom wore a white nightgown. I noticed mom's belly had grown larger… a little too big. At first, I thought she gained weight, but she said that she's actually pregnant and would be giving birth soon.

She knelt to my height, giving me a hug and a lot…of kisses, worrying if I'll be fine, "did you pack food and water?" Mom asked as she squeezed the air out of me.

"Yes…I did," I responded, struggling to breath as she squished my lungs.

"Did you pack your toothbrush?"

"Yes mama."

"Do you have a change of clothes?"

"Yes momm..." I groaned getting a little irritated. Dad sat his hand on her slim shoulders, laughing, "hahaha, give the boy a break, he can handle himself."

Mom then squeezed me tighter, looking at dad with a frustrated expression, "but he's only seven, and there's bandits in the Nova Region. It just had to be at the time when I'm pregnant."

Dad reassured her, "he'll be fine Val, even without a sword."-He withdrew his head from her- "Hopefully that baby's a boy," dad added quietly.

Mom stood crossing her arms, "no, the baby is going to be a girl. I had enough of being the only woman in this household...and have you heard from Savitra? It's been ten months since we last spoke." She remarked. Which is more of a mystery at this point of time, hopefully nothing had happened to them.

"No, I haven't, maybe she's just been too busy now being a duchess and all," dad stated.

"I hope she's ok..." Mom muttered fretfully.

We walked to the front porch, viewing the huge yard and white carriage behind the threshold. Mom gave me one more hug and kiss on my forehead, and dad wrapped his arms around me, "remember son, even if you get in a tough situation, stay levelheaded, ok?"

As we gave each other a fist pump, "got it dad." I replied, making my way to the carriage, and I was off.

Dad told me I had to venture across the vast continent of Valorrey and go to the Nova Region, to meet my new master. Unfortunately, I so happened to have forgotten his name though, it was Alpar…Alibaba, or something?

Entering Tayon city and closing into the Core Centre, I came across the Central Building shortly after. A large rectangular structure around fifty-feet tall, with four giant white pillars supporting the circular ceiling above. When I got inside, there was an abundant amount of people sitting on chairs waiting. Including a lengthy line behind glowing white rifts displayed in front of them.

These are one of the many devices called vestiges, artifacts produced from ancient god-like beings called Promethians, who reigned the planets millions of years ago. Rifts are used for transportation that make travel faster, very much in fact. Only thing was - these instruments are extremely expensive, costing around five thousand ruphes.

Also, we use paper money called ruphes, that has the numeric symbols; 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, 100, and 150. This money system is much simpler, instead of using copper and gold coins that all the kingdoms had used before. I believe five hundred copper coins add up to five ruphes, and so-on so-forth with the other ruphes that has greater value. However, I think one gold coin is worth two hundred ruphes. But since I have a platinum star emblem, informing them I'm the son of a general, they let me pass by with ease.

AUTHORS NOTE:

[Ruphes are basically the exact same as the money system in the U.S. I just figured it'd be easier. But…back to the story.]

I was positioned in front of the nine-foot, glowing white rift. Taking a step in, I instantly walked out into a costal-like area. I stood on a line of grass that slowly altered into black sand, gazing at the masses of dunes surrounding me. Just thirty-feet ahead of myself, there's a large body of lucid grey water with thousands of massive white pillars, all protruding out of the lake. This place is Maurves Lake, named after another race of beings who lived here with the Promeathians, the Maurvens.

There's actually an entire city under this lake, nobody knows how though. However, legend says the Promeathians and Maurvens had went to war, causing destruction all over the planet. So, others speculated that this unknown city had been flooded during the arduous battle, and is practically a living relic of history.

Next, two blue armored guards appeared from both sides of the rift. As they stopped me, just like earlier, I displayed the emblem. They respectably bowed, allowing me to progress. However, I came to notice a huge town to my left, watching many travelers enter and exit the giant gates. As much as I wanted to explore the large settlement and see what was sold there, I had to follow the wooden path installed in the ground on my right, which led me into the green forest not too far ahead.

Roaming through the ginormous woodland to my destination, I seen lots of entities that caught my attention, like a herd of deerane on my right. Tall brown beasts with black dots across their body. They have a midsized snout with clay red noses, small puffy brown tails, and two giant horns on their heads, spiraling towards their backs.

Proceeding with my journey, a giant waterfall was seen on the left of my vision, the pond below is crystal clear, and it seemed extremely deep. I saw a great deal of colorful fish, big, and small. Including, a clear cascade with a huge dark cave behind it too.

'I really wanna go into it and see what I could find in there', I thought to myself, taking a step towards it. But I shook my head, battling my adventurous nature, I must get to Alibaba's house. I think that's his name, it has to be....

As I continued my leisureful walk towards the house…wherever it is, fat black and white boars with two long tusks under their snouts came into view. Trampling near the path, oinking away at each other. These are toraboars, a rank higher than the snigins. I believe they're in the tyro rank.

At that point, my hunger grew like a wolf who hasn't eaten in days. I noticed a bit of slob making a path down the corner of my lips as well. I just had to eat all my snacks on the way here... But still, I continued to drive on.

*****

Night had finally arrived; the luminescent moon shining down on the forest. But I started to get agitated, "where the hell is the house at?" I asked aloud, my expression turning into annoyance.

Stopping for a second, I quickly rotated my neck looking behind myself, perturbed by an unsettling feeling. Like a strange presence of somebody trailing behind me. But I just figured it could've been a beast by chance. Fortunately for me, I found a brown great house with a few acres of land as I exited the time-consuming path. Having long black poles with lanterns, illuminating a bright-green light on the field.

I hastened over to the dark-brown double doors, walking through the large yard. But as soon as I got to the entrance preparing to knock, I felt an ominous pressure on my right side. Almost in slow motion, I glanced to my right, viewing a tanned palm aimed at my face?

I lowered myself as the hand went over my head and jumped a few feet back to see who attacked me. Thus, I observed the tall individual. The person had to be around six feet, figuring it was a man by how he stood. He wore a long-hooded black cloak, allowing his face to be hidden by shadows. It draped to his ankles, only able to view his feet, wearing brown slip-on shoes.

Barely capable of reacting, the man hurdled to me and swiftly landed a solid punch directly on my gut. While trying to catch breath, I swung my leg across his face.

Thinking I landed the attack, I tried to retract my leg. Until I noticed he caught my small boot with his hand. His deep voice chuckled, "nice moves kid, unfortunately for you... You're in a pretty bad predicament."

He lifted me into the air, holding me upside down, but I proceeded to use my kinesis, sheathing my alternative leg in a thick layer of crystal ice. Therefore, I kicked my heel into his chin, which of course happened to fail, since the mysterious man caught it as well.

Staying levelheaded as dad taught me, I shrouded my fists in ice and swung a hook into his abdomen. Only thing was, it felt like I punched steel, and I managed to see his wide grin as he chuckled. Getting anxious, I threw a flurry of punches, aiming at the same spot which seemed to weaken him.

But instead, he kneed me right onto my pancreas. The pure force of the attack caused me to blink in and out of consciousness. Being utterly weakened, he laid me on his broad shoulders, "that's for your parents asking me to fix that stupid crater they made. But I'll give you an A for effort, brat."

He walked through the doors with me still on his shoulders and threw me onto the soft sand-colored carpet, hitting the floor with a hard thud, face flat. I simply groaned in pain, already concluding this man will be the one to teach me.

Still lying on the ground relieving my lungs with air, I heard kid's giggle. I was dumbfounded by the chortles of other children, thinking I'd be the only one trained. I looked up, examining three others around my age. It was Crim, Elaine, and some other girl whom I didn't know. Crim chuckled extending his arm to help me up, "hey Sin, looks like he beat you too."

I was surprised, not expecting Crim to be here, since he basically disappeared for almost an entire year. Still, I grasped his hand and stood with a vexed expression, "yeah, really wasn't expecting that out of the blue."

Crim's hair had gotten much longer from the last time I seen him. His crimson hair falling over his eyebrows and near the center of his neck. Wearing a black short sleeved shirt with grey trousers tucked into a pair of boots.

Elaine approached us, "he beat all of us too, with the same tactic unfortunately." She sighed in disappointment. Elaine kept the same hair style with two buns but had a singular braid on the top right of her forehead, plaited back to her bun. Her apparel: a blue long-sleeved blouse and short black skirt ending right above her peach-toned knees, wearing a pair of slippers matching her shirt.

Elaine's very pretty...

Lastly, the other girl ran up to me in a hurry. A smile curving up to her rosy cheeks as her chestnut eyes sparkled with fascination, "OHH MY GOSH, YOU'RE SO CYUTEE!!"

This unknown girl has back-length hot-pink hair, her bangs nearly hanging in front of her eyes. Possessing a single braid on the left side of her head, positioned behind her ear. She wore an olive-colored robe with an off-white shirt under. Plus, a brown short skirt ending below her thighs, and a pair of black slippers.

Before I knew it, she was holding me like a little puppy, squeezing the oh-so-dear air out of my lungs that I needed to live. "Can we keep him???" She excitedly asked.

Alibaba laughed at her question, then answered as he walked over to the long leather couch in the large living room with a lit fireplace. "He's going to be training with us for the next few weeks, Nirvana," Alibaba replied.

He then motioned his hand for us to come sit with him, as we walked over…Nirvana was still holding onto me somehow. 'Just how strong is this girl?' I asked myself, trying to break free from her monster like clutches.

Taking a seat on the floor in front of him, Alibaba removed his hood, revealing his face.

A cleanly shaven face with a defined jaw, sharp hazel eyes with deep, dark bags under them, like he hasn't slept in what looked like years. The skin tone of his is tanned, having long unruly black hair, draping to the mid-section of his back, plus, he's abnormally skinny too. It puzzles me how he's so strong.

"My name is Alzar Greldin. I'll be training you four little brats to better your hand-to-hand combat for the next few weeks."-Alzar released a lazy sigh- "...All because your parents asked me too...then, you kids will come back the next day or so to continue further training."

Every single word that came out of his mouth, went out the other part of my ear only hearing his name. 'So, it wasn't Alibaba?' I questioned myself, being positively sure it was.

"Now then...you little misfits head to bed so that we can begin training tomorrow morning..." Alzar yawned shooing us away.

All of us were muddled looking at each other. Yet, we shrugged it off and left anyway, not bothering to ask the lazy man about our schedule for training. By the time we stood, he was already snoring with his head laid back on the couch pillow. "Wow..." Crim sighed, making a dull expression while staring at Alzar.

"Try poking him..." I chimed in.

We all looked at each other once more, then Crim scratched his head, "fine, but if he kicks our butts, you're getting mallee-whopped Sin..."

"Is this really a good idea...?" Elaine anxiously asked, shifting behind me.

"Not at all..." Nirvana took a step back, slowly moving closer to the hall. Next, Crim lifted his finger and proceeded to steadily poke Alzar's cheek. However, Alzar didn't wake up, still snoring like a pig.

"Hmm, welp - no butt whooping's," I jested with a shrug.

After, we ascended the soft stairs with wooden railings and walked through a rather wide, white hallway, flushed with dim light from amber gems embedded in the ceiling. "Skysin, your room is on the far right of the hallway," Crim informed, pointing at the direction of where I'd be sleeping.

I nodded with an ok, then we all made way to my room. It had a substantial space, a white and green rug in the middle of the sand-colored carpet. My bed was at least a queen size, sheltered in a fluffy dark-green cover in the left corner of the room facing the door. There are four pillows on the bed, two brown and white. The walls are perfectly painted an ivory color, with there being a dark-brown dresser along with a mirror on the far side in the right corner of the room. Including a large window, that viewed the vast forest and land, able to see the shoreline of Maurves lake as well.

I noticed the closet was on the right of the entrance, having a singular brown wooden door closed. When I walked over to sit my bag down near the dresser, "ooh...I forgot, I haven't properly introduced myself," Nirvana spoke exuberantly.

The pretty girl stuck her small hand out with a humble smile, "I'm Nirvana Hyuseff, daughter of Duke, Tenwrey Hyuseff."

I shook her hand, "nice to meet you Nirvana, I'm Skysin Rillem, son of General Rellgis Rillem."

"It's nice to meet you too Skysin, and…how old are you?" Nirvana asked.

Being wary as to why, I squinted my eyes tilting my head, "I'm…seven."

"HA! Since I'm older than you and Elaine, I'm now your big sister," Nirvana cheered, wrapping her small arm around my neck. I looked at her deadpan, rolling my eyes, "fine, whatever strong lady."

Suddenly, I felt a recognizable atmosphere lingering around, just like when my mother is angered. As Nirvana's brown eye's glared at me, "I'm sorry Skysin…what'd you say??"

At that time, Crim and Elaine both noticed too, becoming dead silent staring at her. Therefore, feeling the horror from this child, I laughed it off anxiously, trying to not get pommeled, "uhh-haha...nothing?"

She smiled and turned around, "well it's getting late, I'm gonna head to sleep. Nice meeting you once again…little brother, hehehe."

I smiled hesitantly, still frightened even though she exited the room. "See you tomorrow, Sin," Elaine said as she and Crim waved me goodnight.

Afterwards, I laid down in the soft warm bed, "finally, I can go to sleep..." I said comforting myself on the mattress. After a few minutes passed, I dozed off. Dreaming about what tomorrow's training will be like.