The knee brace Emily wore shattered when she was smacked by the war hammer. The force tossed her against a wall with a sickening crunch on impact. The little girl coughed up blood as her small sword slipped from her fingers, landing on the dirt beside her. Arturo, her combat trainer, hefted the large weapon to his shoulder blades and walked towards Emily with ease.

He always left Emily in awe; everything he does seems so easy for him. His large build was enough to intimidate most people, but he showed kindness to those he would meet instead. A slight smile was enough for the girl to know he was laughing at her. Emily groaned in pain as she slowly reached out and grabbed the sword and pulled it towards herself while using the newly-created cracks in the wall to lift herself back to her feet.

“You don’t have to push yourself too much, you know. It’s only the second week of your training, and I have yet to even show you how to dodge my weapon,” Arturo sighed. Emily’s stubborn step towards him was enough to have him take the large hammer from his shoulder and prepare himself for another light swing.

“I-it’s not about pushing myself right now. I need to feel pain,” Emily growled through gritted teeth before running towards her trainer. A bored expression was on Arturo’s face while he gave a small swing in the direction of her.

Emily had no idea what that swing contained. In an instant, a burst of wind overtook her and threw her backwards to the same spot where she had been lying beforehand. Shock made her fall to her knees, sweat blinding her as she stared at the ground trying to comprehend what had just happened.

The look on her face made Arturo burst out in deep, throaty laughs. The girl finally looked up in defeat and held her sword out in the way she was taught to signify her loss. Arturo took the sword from Emily’s hands and wiped it off with the rag he kept in the back pocket of his pants before walking to the shelf where a variety of weapons hung.

“I suppose that’s enough for the day. Tomorrow, I will be teaching you defensive maneuvers to back up your natural ability for offense.” He turned and walked to the door before turning back to smile at his student.

Emily sighed and stood up, wincing at the slight pain that shot through her left leg. The disability that the goblins had given her the day her parents died still slowed her down, and even though the physical therapy the med clerk had given helped stop pain from rising up, it still reappeared time to time.

The girl sucked up whatever feelings jolted through her body as she walked out of the training room and down the hall to the outdoors. Opening the large oak door, a gush of wind made her brown slap her in the face, much to the young girl’s annoyance. Taking a few steps forward and noticing the small stairway to the ground put a sick feeling in her stomach. This was the type of thing she dreaded the most.

She took a deep breath before starting the small descent to the ground. It was only a few steps, but it was enough to get the small tears streaming down her face. When the last step was finished, Emily collapsed to the ground and rubbed the back of her legs before stretching them out in front of her. Anger ripped through her as she glared at her own body with a blurred vision. It took everything inside her to calm down, and when she did the minutes began to pass by.

She had an odd problem with her body. The goblins that had murdered her parents had slashed open the back of her calves and ripped the tendons to pieces, causing her to forever walk on the front of her feet, never to use her heel again. She knew that surgery could have helped, but with the chances being incredibly high for her to never walk again, Emily had chosen the hard road and went with short tendons instead.

Rubbing her calves and doing her normal stretches, Emily realized the sun was starting to set now. Her eyes grew wide as she remembered the warnings given to her by her brother about being in the open during nightfall. Emily only felt a small hint of relief when she felt the dagger on its hilt by her side, but she knew that if something big came out she wouldn’t stand much of a chance with the little magic she knew.

Forgetting about the pain, Emily stood to her feet and started to run towards the large castle that the guild had as their headquarters. With each step, pain that felt like large knives pushing up through her calves to the rest of her body made the girl scream a silent plea to whatever gods ruled above to save her.

It was darker at that point, mist rising around the grass area she was running on. Her heart was beating faster with each step as she started to notice shapes beginning to form in the mist.

Something took ahold of her shoulders, and with a jolt Emily had her dagger out in less than a second and brought it up to her attacker without a second thought. Stabbing deep, she felt the warm liquid seep through her shirt as a sharp cry of pain was heard. Spinning around with dagger ready, she came face to face with her now bleeding brother.

“J-James? You scared m-,” Emily was muffled as her brother covered her mouth and picked her up. Without hesitation, James ran to the door of the castle and threw it open. Setting Emily down in the safety of the welcoming hall, he turned around and took out his sword from the sheath on his back. She watched as blood dripped from his other hand where a large shield formed at the snap of his fingers.

Awe formed in Emily as she observed James race into the mist, the creatures she saw forming go against the one person whom the girl looked up to the most. Black, sticky-looking liquid suddenly splattered across the grass, standing out from the deep green. Wherever the substance touched, it took only a few seconds for the area to become brown and dead. If it wasn’t for the fact that the young girl had full confidence in her brother she would have become afraid.

She counted the seconds as they ticked by, odd noises came from the mists that had grown so thick she couldn’t even see through it with her night sense. She was naturally a darkness style special mage, with her past it was what had formed in the magic she wielded in her soul.

Her senses were spread out across the grounds as far as she could go, which was surprisingly pretty far for her age. She sat down on the inside of the safety of the castle and attempted to figure out what was happening, but it didn’t seem as she would be able to.

She gasped out as she could feel a large figure approaching the entrance to the welcoming hall. Emily opened her eyes and crawled away from the door as fast as she could as the thing came closer. To her relief, her brother burst through the opening and slammed the door shut behind him. The blood was still dripping from his palm as he dropped his shield next to him before running to his sister and hugged her.

“Where were you? I was searching all over until Arturo told me you had been training but never came back!” James pulled away and looked Emily in the eyes with a serious look in his eyes. Emily looked at the floor and tried not to cry. She didn’t like it when he yelled at her, but she believed in a way that she deserved it.

“M-my calves...I was sitting on the ground outside but then I realized it was getting dark so…” The girl looked for the words but gave up when she decided excuses wouldn’t suffice for anything at this point.

Her brother watched the expressions on her face before sighing and picking up the child and walking her back to where the kitchens held food to help replenish the magic he had used up. James knew his sister ultimately did nothing wrong, but the knowledge that she could have died still shook him to anger. She was his last family member, his last thread of hope for his family line. He was too afraid of having children on the premises that the same fate lied for them as it did for his parents.

Emily slowly started to fall asleep in her brother’s arms, the rocking motion of his steps breaking down the fear that had overtaken her only minutes ago. James felt his heart sink in the pit of his stomach at the thought of her having to suffer at any moment through life, the innocence on her face to be ripped away by reality.

Nothing would be able to stop what could happen to Emily, he knew this from personal experience. But the one hope he could muster from the very bottom of his soul as he stepped through the kitchen doorway was that whatever was to happen to her wouldn’t break her more than she could handle.