Chapter 3 – Birthday!

“Happy birthday Deadra!” My mother wakes my brother and I up while opening the door to our room. My brother excitedly jumps out of bed, he lives on the top bunk of the bunk bed our father made for us.

My brother pokes his head out from the side of my bed and my mother comes closer to the bed. “Happy fifth birthday brother! You’re old enough to go to school with me now!” He smiles happily wile giggling with excitement.

My mother Aris puts her hand on my head as I begin to sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes. “Why don’t you and your brother Bois go to the river and wash up while your father and I set up breakfast.” This is a strange request, mother never allows us to go to the river without her, maybe it is because Bois is almost old enough to venture outside the village, and he will be turning ten years old soon. The river is not very dangerous nor is it very far away, but does this mean I can finally leave the house without Aris or Feolra?

Mother smiles and leaves the room and my brother grabs my hand and drags me out of bed. I dress into my usual outfit. Hardened brown leather boots, black loose fitting leggings made of something similar to cotton. A greyish brown shirt that fits around me perfectly, not to tight or to loose. All of these clothes are hand-me-downs from my brother Bois. He has clothes that are identical but slightly bigger and taller. We rush out of the house and go to the river. When we arrive I do not bother taking off my clothes.

“Wait don’t jump in the river with your clothes on brother, we won’t be able to dry them until we get back home!” he was already striping when he said this.

I turn to Bois and hold out my hand, “brother can you keep a secret?” he nods his head slightly and his birth mark begins to faintly glow white. Could white be the color of curiosity? Or maybe it means he is lying or nervous? I do not know but then I continue with my speech. “Watch this very carefully.” I stick my hand in front of his face with my palm toward the sky, my fingers slightly curved inwards.

A small flame the size and shape of one from a lighter ignites in my hand. The especially small and timid fire flickers a few short moments before extinguishing completely. After five years of living in this world and pushing myself far above and beyond that of someone my own age, I did the impossible. I created fire no matter how small; I still created fire before I had the ceremony of Suzaku. Either due to my unusual meditating methods or my hourly outbursts of trying to make flames, I final broke through and did what my parents said was impossible!

Bois’ mark glows yellow with excitement as he opens his mouth with aww. “How… How is that possible?”

“I have been practicing since I was younger while everyone was away from home! But remember not to tell anyone I can do this. Lucarus only knows I can dry clothes and boil water, he does not know I can make fire yet. Otherwise no one knows of my abilities.” I smile happily with my ability to impress my older brother.

“Ok, I promise I won’t tell anyone, but only if you start teaching me how to do it also! I can’t let you be ahead of me!”

He then rushes over to me and tackles me into the water. My head sinks down below the rushing current for only a moment as I roll on top of him. Quickly he pushes me of with his arms as he springs up off the ground. Our hands interlock as we collide once again face to face. Over powering me by both size and strength he pushes me down and dives on top of me holding my hand s against the river bank.

“Ok, ok I surrender! I’ll teach you after school gets out. But we need to do it somewhere no one will see us!”

Getting off me and brushing his dripping wet clothes off he says “I’m still your big bro so its only natural I would be stronger.” Smilling he reaches a hand out to help me up. After we get out of the water I dry my clothes by heating my body from head to toe and then having it radiate out onto the clothing. I then put heat into my hand and begin drying my brother’s clothes. While drying his clothes I ask “are mom and dad making a surprise party like they did for your birthday?”

His face distorts into one of shock and his mark begins to glow light blue. Dark blue means sorrow, so what does light blue mean? Worry perhaps? He then tries to gather his words and covers his mark with his hand mumbling for a moment then looking me in the eyes.

“How did you know?”

“I’m smarter than I look, you can’t hide stuff from me that easily, I knew you rushed out to fast, plus you have been trying to keep me at the river as long as you can.” We stand in silence for a moment. “So is it safe to go back now?”

Lightly punching me in the shoulder he says “haha, yeah we can go back, just don’t tell anyone I ruined the surprise!” We then walk back home side by side happily talking with idle chit chat. Today I feel closer to my brother. I’m sure we will be even closer in the future.

When we get back home the house is oddly quite for this time of day, and I know exactly why. They want to surprise me with a party. I open the door and walk in first with brother slightly behind me. Every one pops out and yells “happy birthday!” The people in the house are not just father and mother to my surprise. Lucarus and his family are also there. Everyone is in the dining room staring at me with excitement; everyone’s hands are glowing different shades of yellow showing their joy and excitement for me becoming old enough to go to school. On the table sits several plates of food and a few boxes with unknown contents.

“Thank you everyone! This is so awesome!” I shout out in excitement. My face almost hurts from the giant grin splitting it from ear to ear. I could almost cry from joy.

After a few moments we settle down and sit down at the table. The breakfast is a bountiful feast. We have large brown fried eggs, meat that would be similar to steak from my previous world. Several different colored vegetables from the field, including my favorite from this world called camdue. Camdue tastes sweet like a caramelized onion, but with less spice, and looks kind of like a large yellow squash. On the side are big loafs of bread, that resemble some type of croissant in texture and flavor. I happily scarf down the meal with my friends and family. The adults have a strange silver liquid that they are drinking, and will not allow any of children to try it. I assume it is like the alcohol we have from my previous world but for now I cannot make an accurate guess. After every one is finished eating my father begins to speak.

“Son, you are becoming older every day and soon you will become a man before my very eyes! I still remember when you could barely even crawl, haha. You were very cute. But now you are finally old enough to leave the house so I will bestow you with a gift from your mother and I.” He then grabs the largest box and hands it to me.

I open it up without hesitation. Inside I find a silver medallion of the phoenix god Suzaku. It matches the one my brother got for his birthday. It has a large clear glass fire covering the Phoenix to resemble our family name of Freyfire, which means invisible fire. It is attached to a silver chain and able to be worn around the neck. My Dad exclaims “with this anyone in the village will know you are in our family, and will be friendly to you. Of course the guards will not let you leave to the forest until you are older and pass you pyromancy test, but that is for a later day.”

My brother then grabs another box and hands it to me “This is from me” He watches me diligently while I rip open this box as well. Inside is a pair of brown gloves that match my leather boots. They seem to have very good grip and are highly flexible, but provide almost no protection. These will be very nice for climbing.

“Thank you very much Bois!”

Then the smallest and last box is picked up by my friend Lucarus who hands it to me. “My family helped me make this, it should prove very helpful to you in the future when you can do pyromancy but right now it will only be a nice toy.” He obviously is trying to gain some form of good Karma from all this. I don’t know why but some evil and cruel person got this whole good and bad Karma thing brainwashed into this poor little boy. I open it up and inside is a clear glass orb with a red rock in the shape of a flame inside of it.

“Thank you so much! I am sure my parents will teach me how to use it when I come of age” I smile innocently keeping the fact that I will teach myself how to use it properly hidden.

The festivities die down after a while longer and everyone goes their separate ways. Father goes to work, while mother and brother go to school. Lucarus stays with me but his family goes off to where ever they go during the day. From today on I am aloud to wonder around the village, and I can even bring Lucarus with me if I keep watch over him. I take a deep breath as I open the front door. I step outside and look around excited to start a new adventure. I begin to take my first step when suddenly a crash of lightning falls from the sky and rain begins to pour down from the heavens. I guess I will have to wait tell tomorrow for my adventure to begin. That is better because it will be the weekend and brother can also accompany us. Today will just be Lucarus and I trying to figure out the magical orb his family gave me.

“Hey Lucarus I guess we can’t go outside… Did you do something bad again? It must be Karma!”

Looking down and slightly fidgeting Lucarus says “I ate desert yesterday without asking.”

“Sigh, I guess we will just play inside today. To make up for your bad karma why don’t you meditate and focus on your strength while I figure out how all my presents work?” Lucarus gives a slight nod before sitting down cross-legged and placing his hands in his lap.

Pulling out the small orb Lucarus gave me I first try to pour energy into it. I continuously try to heat it up but it stays the same temperature. Then I put even more energy into it until I would be at the point of making a flame. I do this for as long as I can before exhausting all my energy. Examining the orb I notice no differences. When I did this to the air in my palm, a fire would be ignited. If I did this same thing to an object that is semi-flammable it would ignite completely and continue to burn on its own. Even if I did this to non-flammable objects like rocks or dirt they would heat up drastically and sometimes even glow. I could do it to a piece of ice and completely thaw it out in seconds. But this large marble shaped object had absolutely no reaction when I put in all of my strength in it.

“Lucarus do you know how this thing works?” I get no reaction from his as he is deep in meditation. I swear sometimes he trains harder than I do. If I didn’t have a few year head start he might be beating me.

Well since he is distracted any ways might as make him usefull. I walk over to him and put my hand on his chest. I pull the heat from his body to reenergize my own. I keep pulling until I feel the heat between us equalize and can no longer pull. I feel slightly reenergized and can feel power inside my body again. His power level would probably be about one fifth that of mine currently. I wonder how that compares to other kids our age. After taking his strength I smile and rub his head “I didn’t think that would work! Is it because you’r meditating? Or because you just didn’t try to prevent it?”

This time instead of putting energy directly into the ball I create a flame below it. I feel around the ball but once again I feel no difference from it and decide to just give up. I place it in one of the claws of the phoenix medallion, and it fits perfectly, almost like they were built for each other. The medallion looks as though it can hold three of these marbles. One in each claw and one in its beak.

“So I can’t figure out how this thing works yet but one day I will. I’m not giving up yet we just need to gather our energy, do you know of any way to get energy back quicker than just sitting around?”

Lucarus continues to meditate completely ignoring me. Or by meditating is he telling me that that is the fastest way to gain energy? Besides eating, absorbing heat from other sources or actually sleeping it is the fastest way I have ever found.

Following Lucarus’s lead I begin to meditate as well. I can feel the heat recirculate through my body as it enters my every pore. Energy excites my muscles and deep within me a ball of purified heat begins to gather. If I was stronger this would become condensed flames or maybe even plasma.

After some time I hear snoring coming from Lucarus and decide to play a prank on him. I softly drag him over to below the table then go to the kitchen to grab a bucket. I step outside into the rain with the bucket over my head and walk around a bit doing lunges… yeah I know but training can come at any opportunity! And I always wanted to become some super strong material artist or something so why not! Any ways I go back inside when the bucket is full and vicariously set it on the edge of the table. Walking across the room I lean against the wall and shout “Lucarus!” before watching the madness ensue.

Lucarus shoots up and hits his head on the table. “Ouch!” rubbing his head and crawling out from the table he nudges the bucket tipping over onto his head.

“Oh no Buddy what happened?” I run over to him and take the bucket off his head.

“Sniff gulp, I fell asleep in my training so karma took revenge! I’m sorry Suzaku. I will train more diligently form now on!”

“Hmmm well to make up for it lets both try to figure out how this thing works.” I put my hand on his shoulder and give him a big grin. Dam am I evil. If karma is real I will forever be tormented. Something real bad like eternally being reborn will happen to me… oh wait…

Stifling his sniffling he nods. “Hmm”

First lets try an experiment to see if I can hold more energy than my total amount. “lucarus pour your energy into me ok?” I grab Lucarus’ hand and try to take his energy but nothing flows out.

“Ok that’s not working just put all your energy into the ball then”

He does at I say. He even makes funny faces wrinkling his eyebrows and popping his eyes out every which way.

“You tried your best so don’t worry about it, I am not mad at you”

The sad look on his face is wiped away “Really? That’s good I was worried!”

“Haha good karma for you!”

“Alright lets try something different”

I take a deep breath and close my eyes. I gather my power all into the palms of my hand while being careful not to let any of it slip out or into the ball. I feel a great pressure appear around the palms of my hands, almost as if the power wants to escape and be pulled out. The longer I hold it there the more violently it reacts. I wait for a few seconds then with one fluid motion I release all the built up tension.

I feel nothing but my energy being violently drained. Even more energy than I built up is ripped from my body. I feel light headed and start to sweat. There is no heating of the ball or any other noticeable effects that I could feel. This ended with failure once again.

“Wow I think it worked!” Lucarus shouts, “It light up for a brief moment. Although it was only just a very small portion but the fire inside seamed to glow a little.” I open my eyes to see Lucarus smiling at me with his eyes closed. It is the same goofy smile he always gives when he is learning a new skill or is being praised by me. He is missing half his teeth, but I guess I am also.

I begin to open my mouth to tell him how stupid he is because I did not see any light but then I realize, my eyes were closed, so I was unable to see anything. “Did that really happen?”

“Of course! I would never lie to you, I don’t want to gain any bad karma. Karma always comes back to bite me very quickly.” The last sentence almost being mumbled, but he got his point across either way. I was very excited to learn how to make this ball work. I just needed a higher rate of energy to be put into it. Now all I need to do is find a way to gain power faster, but how would I do something like that?

A few hours later the rain stops and I bring Lucarus to his home calling it a day. Somehow I never noticed but he is actually my next door neighbor… no wonder his family comes over all the time. After that I go home and do my usual pyromancer techniques before going to bed, today was a long day, but it was very exciting and fun.

I wake up in the morning before my brother does and sit up. As always I begin my morning regimen of exhausting my strength then meditating before breakfast. I hold my palm out and ignite the tiny candle sized flame. Dancing a few millimeters above my hand as per usual I feel the drain on my body, but something is off. The drain feels less tiring. Also the flame its lasting longer than just a brief moment. One two seconds later it extinguishes. No way. Did I get this much stronger from using that tiny little orb?

I begin to think of ways to experiment but then I remember that today I can visit the village with Lucarus! Jumping out of bed and grabbing my medallion and unusual flame marble I rush to go to the Fulbreath house hold. Today a new adventure awaits me, I wonder what the village is like. My world is finally going to expand…