Klarmick (Mature)

[Wolfenix]

Basic info on what this story will be like: This story will follow 7 people, as they strive to become mighty warriors, and one day battle the Sarkleen, a race of monsters to the North. For a good while, it will deal with the trial they have to pass to become the fabled ultimate warriors: the Klarmick.

Prologue, part 1: Sam and Ritus
Sam and Ritus ran down the cobblestone street, loafs of bread held tightly to their chest. Rushing by on each side of them were the wood and straw buildings of the town of Farox. The two boys quickly dove into a dim alleyway, narrowly escaping a fire bolt as it exploded behind them. As they came into another street, they hurried and jumped into a cellar hidden behind a couple of fruit carts. They could hear the angry yelling of the old shopkeeper who's bread they had stolen. "Get your asses back here so I can roast them!" the man yelled. Sam and Ritus held their breath as they listened to the old shopkeep's angry grumbling on the street above. after a minute, they heard him leave, and after a couple more, they let out a sigh of relief.

"You never mentioned he was a Klarmick!" Ritus said angrily at his friend Sam.

"Nah," Sam replied. "He was no Klarmick, just a mage soldier. Retired or not, if he was a Klarmick, we wouldn't be alive right now." Ritus grunted in an annoyed manner as Sam took a match box out of his pocket and lit a gas lantern, illuminating the two boy's hideout. It wasn't the coziest of dwellings, but that much was to expected of an abandoned cellar. All it really had were some empty crates, two mats, a few stolen blankets, and a couple of sticks the two young boys used to spar with.

Sam was a shaggy looking brown haired boy, with deep blue eyes. For almost all of his 12 years of life, he had a thirst for adventure that never seemed to be satisfied. Where ever Sam went, trouble was soon to start. Ritus, on the other hand, was a much more reclusive boy, who almost always followed Sam's lead. He was a year younger than Sam, had short black hair, and brown eyes. The two boys had met 7 years ago at an orphanage. They bonded quickly, having both witnessed a terrible event that caused their parents death. This event was the total destruction of their home village by the horrifying monsters that lived In the northern region of the Continent. At that time, Ritus was captivated at how easily Sam got over such an event. Two weeks later, they ran away from the orphanage, and since then have been running from town to town, taking nothing but their ragged sack-cloth clothing with them. Each time Sam successfully managed to get the locals to hate the two. One time a pastry shop owner even poisoned his sweets, which left Sam bedridden for a month. Ritus constantly feared that one day they would really be killed. But on this night, his mind was focused on something else, something he had been dreading, and Sam had been eagerly anticipating.

"Hey Sam?" Ritus said, as he began to eat his bread.

"Yeah?" Sam replied. "Do you really think we'll be alright? I mean, I've heard of people get killed in this, not to mention what we'll have to do if we pass."

"Feh, you worry too much Ricky, those people are all fat spoiled weaklings who don't know a thing about actual combat. We, on the other hand, have lived our lives on the streets. We can handle a little action. Also, don't even bother with all that stuff we'll be doing afterwards. That's several month's away." Ritus smiled somewhat at this. Sam always had a reassuring tone in his voice.

"Your right Sam, we'll definitely pass the trial to become mage soldiers." Sam looked over at him as if Ritus had just said something stupid.

"Are you kidding me, Ritus? fuck mage soldier, I'm going to be a Klarmick!" Ritus coughed up some of his bread. The soggy projectiles flew across the cellar, landing on Sam's dirt covered face.

As Sam cleaned the crumbs off, Ritus began saying in an awestruck manner "KLARMICK!!! You actually want to be a Klarmick! Sam, this test only happens once every five years, and can't be entered twice. Sure only people in our general age group will be participating, but there's gonna be over 30,000 of them! and out of that, only 20 become Klarmicks! We may be tough, but a lot of these people have people training them."

Sam set his chin on his fist, looked with a piercing stare up at Ritus and said "So?" Ritus just stood there for a moment, dumbfounded. Finally, he sat back down, and continued eating his bread.

"Maybe you'll become a Klarmick, Sam, but I sure won't." Sam finished eating his share of bread, and laid on his mat.

"Whatever," he said with a comical smirk. "I hear Klarmick's can pick two mage soldiers as servants. I'm definitely looking forward to having you as my pack mule."

Prologue, Part Two: Terrace

7 years ago...
A joy filled seven-year-old boy ran up to his father as he walks past his houses gate. "Daddy!" The green-eyed little boy said to his father, pausing a moment to catch his breath. "I mastered the move you taught me! I even took down this one big guy who was being mean to mommy!" The father smiled and patted his son on the head.

"That's great Terrace, keep it up, and you'll be a Klarmick just like me someday. Now, Why don't you go play out in the field, me and mommy have some catching up to do." The boy nodded eagerly and started sprinting toward his favorite climbing tree, his white hair fluttering a bit as he ran. Smiling, the father walked up to his house, where his wife, Gezelda, was leaning on the doorframe, smiling back at him.
"So I heard our son protected you from somebody." Gezelda chuckled as she moved some stray strand of black hair from her eyes.

"Just some drunk, I could have taken him myself. Still, I was surprised how easily Terrace beat him. Then again, he is the son of "The Legendary Heroz." Heroz smiled and embraced his wife tightly, truly glad to see her again.

"Ah, but being so important can get so tiring sometimes," Heroz said. "After all, I can get called out to duty at the most inopportune moments." Gezelda smiled mischievously as she swept her fingers through her husbands thick hair.

"Well," she said. "We could always pick up where we left off." Heroz smiled, picked her up, and carried his wife up the stairs to the bedroom.

A few days later, Heroz was called out to duty again, the vile Sarkleen never seemed to cease their attacks. As always, he showed his son a new move really quick, than left out for the battlefront. So life returned to how it was 95 percent of the time for Heroz's family. The life of a Klarmick's family is often a lonely existence, and it isn't uncommon for their to be cases of the Klarmick's spouse cheating or getting a divorce. This idea, however, wouldn't even cross Gezelda's mind. She loved her husband far to much to be swept into the arms of another man. His son also couldn't be prouder of his father. Heroz wasn't just a Klarmick, but the second strongest there was. Not a day would go by when Terrace didn't brag about being the son of such a legend. Though his friends no doubt got sick of it. Some boys even tried to jump him a couple weeks later, but to no avail...

"Ha! there's no way you brats could stand against the son of the mighty Heroz!" Terrace proclaimed as he stood proudly over three injured boys, one bleeding quite a bit from his nose. Terrace was also hurt, but not so much he would let it show. As the boys ran away, Terrace proudly turned and picked up the groceries he had bought for his mom. He lifted them as high as he could, and sprinted down the brick roads. He stop for a moment to say hello to the civil officer, who was scolding a carriage driver who was going too fast through the market district. As he rushed into his house he yelled "Mommy! I'm home!" He then paused for a moment, waiting for a response. "Mommy?" Terrace heard something from the kitchen. He went in to find his mother sitting in a chair, hands covering her face, sobbing. "Mommy? what's wrong?" as he walked in, he noticed a newspaper on the ground. As he read, he dropped the groceries.

"Tragedy struck not only the town of Yeshwire today, but the entire human kingdom. A large group of Sarkleen invaded the settlement, killing all but a few people. Most of the Sarkleen were too weak to stand up to the mage soldiers, but sadly, there was nobody who could have stopped the one leading them. At the command of these monsters, was none other than one of the most beloved men in the world... I'm barely able to believe it myself, let alone write this in the paper. Heroz, the legendary Klarmic, led the assault of Yeshwire. Eye witness accounts report him slaughtering guards, citizens, and even... children. This marks the first time in history that a human has sided with the Sarkleen. A tragedy to rival the loss of the Isles of Darkness over three hundred years ago... "

Present day...
The thief was slammed into the wall with such force that it knocked him unconscious. "Good work, Terrace, you've proven to be invaluable to our town," said the civil officer. "It will be a shame to try and run this place without you." Terrace started to walk away.

"You managed to get by without me before, I'm sure it will be no trouble." He walked across town to his house, where he was greeted by a bright eyed young girl.

"Big Brother! your back! I thought you were going to that trial thing?" Terrace patted her on the head.

"Sorry Claurice, but you still have me for a few more hours."

Claurice smiled and replied " That's okay, I want to spend as much time with big brother, before he become a big hero!" Terrace faked a smile for his sister.

"Well, you'll have to wait a minute, I have to talk with mother." At this, Claurice nodded and ran of to her favorite climbing tree.

Terrace went into the back yard where his mother was. "Hello, mother. I'll be leaving soon, to become a Klarmic. I just thought you would want to know. Whenever I try to think of a perfect father, I still see dad. At least, the way he pretended to be. It probably breaks your heart to hear me say this, but after I do become a Klarmic, I'm going to find him... and kill him. It's what the father he pretended to be would have wanted. I know it sounds weird to say that, but I'm going to become that image of a perfect man, and even greater. I'll visit you, when I get the time." With what he had to say done, Terrace started walking towards where his sister was playing, and away from his mothers grave.


The rest of the prologue will be posted within the next few days.

[Wolfenix]

Prologue, Part 3: Aiisha and Eresha
Aiisha stretched out on the floor, relaxing after a hard days training, her scarlet hair lay in a tangled, sweat-drenched mess underneath her head. As she was relaxing, her friend Eresha was in the kitchen, making some tea for the two of them to drink. The two girls had always been spoiled, even if they didn't act like it. Aiisha, in particular, always preferred to do things on her own. She wasn't above working with other people, but she would go berserk if somebody tried to do things for her. Eresha, on the other hand, was a much calmer girl. At first glance, it would seem the relationship between these two girl is similar to the relationship between Sam and Ritus, but that's far from the truth. Eresha will go along with Aiisha, but is far from timid. As a matter of fact, because of her nature, Eresha can better grasp her situation and surroundings, and, when serious, even beat Aiisha in a fight.

"You really should take it slower," Eresha said as she walked into the room, holding two fresh cups of tea. "Your not going to be able to function at your peak when the trial comes."

"Eh, I can manage," Aiisha replied, taking her tea from Eresha. "I'll just beat off all the spoiled little brats first. That should be fairly easy." Aiisha looked up at Eresha to see her with a creepy look on her face. "Oh god, what did I say now?"

"Your gonna beat them of, Aiisha? I think they'd actually like that." Eresha laughed, her blue-black hair sliding of her shoulders. Aiisha's face flushed red at this comment.

"You have a sick mind! you know that!" Aiisha yelled angrily, sitting up straight now. "Seriously, were 14 now, you need to grow up."

"Oh, not really," Eresha replied. "I just say that stuff because it's so fun to annoy you that way." She sat on her bed, looking around the room she wouldn't see again for several months. It was awfully unfitting, really. It was an enormous room, and the walls themselves were snow white and decorated with frilly garlands. The floor was a soft, shaggy carpet, that looked thick enough for insects to live in. The bed she sat upon was a large, rounded mattress that looked large enough for 10 people to sleep on. Most of these things were a shade of pink that seemed to be better suited to a 5 year old. Indeed, Eresha's parents were very rich people, and they insisted on spoiling their daughter. However, knowing their daughters intention, they made sure to keep her well prepared. The room was littered with different wooden weapon for practicing with, along with some books on fighting and proper workouts. These were used by Aiisha far more than Eresha, but Eresha's parents still made her train at least 10 hours a week.

Aiisha saw her friend looking contemplatively around the room. "I'm gonna miss this place too," she said. "It's become like a second home." She finished off her tea, and handed the cup to Eresha.

"Thank you," Eresha said. She then proceeded to stare intently into both cups, trying to see what she could. After a minute, she smiled and took the cups back to the kitchen. After a while she returned, and began putting away all the stuff in her room.

"So what did you see?" Aiisha asked, curious about the cups. "Anything good?"

"Not saying," Eresha replied. Rather than just throw her items in the closet, she decided she would neatly organize them. After all, they would probably never get used again.

"Oh Come on, Eresha, why do you insist on the secrecy?" Aiisha made a pouting face at Eresha, but she didn't even look in her direction.

"I've told you before, my predictions only have a 15 percent accuracy. There's no point in getting a person to look forward to something that might not even happen." It never ceased to amaze Aiisha how efficiently Eresha worked. Even with average tasks like cleaning, she was capable of completing things in half the time. Aiisha watched as she managed to carry the wooden items in her arms while she balanced the books on her head. She even managed to use her feet to place some things in there appropriate locations. That done, Eresha went to her closet to find some sturdy clothing. "By the way, Aiisha, how far are you planning on getting in this trial?"

"Well," she responded. "I would like to become a Klarmick, but I ain't holding my breath. At the least, I know I can become a mage soldier." Seeing Eresha preparing the clothes she'd be wearing in the trial, Aiisha grabbed her bag and got out her set. It was a set of brand new brown leather armor, bought by her parents to help protect her during the trial. "I'm going to grab my last shower first. You know, it's a shame we'll be split up on the island."

"It's okay," Eresha said. She pulled out of the closet an enchanted Sarkleen skin vest. The Sarkleen it had been taken from was particularly strong, and the vest was easily four times as durable as Aiisha's armor. The perks of having rich parents were obvious. "With luck, we'll find each other again during the trial."
Prologue, Part 4: Rodrick
It was was almost midnight now, and unusually calm, despite the scene unfolding. The delinquent charged, pipe held tightly, and anger burning in his eyes. As he swung it down, a foot came up, making contact with his jaw. The blow had such force that it not only sent the young man flying, but you could her as his teeth shattered in his skull. The pain was the only thing that kept him from bring knocked unconscious. He gripped his now heavily bleeding mouth and hid behind his 8 friends, who now surrounded the 15 year old that had just defeated this "self proclaimed bad ass" in one hit. "Fucking damn it!" He said, muffled by his own blood and hand. "Kill this fucking bastard!" With that, all eight of his lackeys charged, only to be greeted by Rodrick's fighting abilities. He instantly knocked two out with a couple of quick, powerful punches to the face. Before one guy behind him had time to blink, Rodrick had spun around, and his foot was colliding with the side of the thugs head. As the guy fell to the ground, another tried to throw a punch, only to get his arm caught. Rodrick then used him as a club, whirling him around and knocking the others back. That done, Rodrick threw his tool into a ditch.

"What the hell is going on here?" said a man smoking a cigar, who had just arrived. He examined Rodrick closely. Short black hair, a stern face, and a gaze with black eyes sharp enough to cut a loaf of bread. His clothes were torn, and he had a few minor injuries, but none of them were new. The guy with the broken jaw now crawled up to the man with the cigar, pleadingly.

"Boss! this guy, he just attacked us out of nowhere. We didn't do nothin' to him. Come on boss, ya just gotta kick this bastard's ass!"

"Shut the hell up," the man said. "You can save your stories, I'd break your face right here, but it looks like this guy did that for me." He took the now stub of a cigar out of his mouth, and threw it to the side. Despite his gruff attitude, he looked like he was still in his early twenties. He wore a fedora and gray trench coat. "I have to say I'm impressed, most don't learn how to use magic until they get to the island."

"Mu-magic?!" the guy on the ground exclaimed.

"Of course," the coat wearing man said. "He used air magic to accelerate his limbs, and give his attacks more power. He also used a bit of fire magic on the arm of the guy he threw."

"So that's how he took me down so easily!" said Mr. Broke Jaw, as I'll now call him. He looked over to the ditch nearby to see the guy's arm had been burnt. "That was a dirty trick you bastard! fight fair!"

"Actually," Rodrick said, not looking away from the man in the coat. "I never used magic on you, it was unnecessary."

Before Mr. Broke Jaw could react, the guy in the trench coat laughed and said "I like your style, what's your name? Mines Neaver"

"Rodrick."

"Well, Rodrick, I've got to say, I really do like you. The thing is though, I can't just let you get away with beating up my boys, even if they were the ones that attacked you." Neaver took off his coat, revealing a physique to match Rodrick's. Both got into battle position, and after a second, Rodrick charged at full force. To his surprise, his punch hit Neaver's arms, but didn't have any effect.. Quickly, Rodrick blocked as he saw a kick sweeping towards his abdomen. It was unusually heavy, and after being knocked back, Rodrick saw Neaver had a coat of dirt on his arms and legs. "Your not the only person with magic around here, pal," Neaver said. Rodrick thought for a minute about the situation, taking the guys magic into account.

"Earth," Rodrick said. Neaver was puzzled by this. There was no real reason for Rodrick to state the obvious. After all, it was clear he wasn't an easily impressed idiot.

"Holy shit!" Mr. Broke Jaw yelled. "Boss has dirt on his legs."

"Like that," Neaver thought. Rodrick came at him again, and Neaver braced himself for the attack. Suddenly, though, Rodrick's fighting style changed. Neaver got a glimpse of Rodrick's hands, and saw that there was water on them now. Before He could react, Rodrick weaved through Neaver's defenses and launched a kick. Neaver managed to narrowly avoid it, but was unable to protect his arms. With one arm, Rodrick splashed water onto the dirt, weakening Neavers defense. With the other arm he went to punch with a mix of air and fire swirling around his fist. Before it could connect, Neaver launched himself forward, kneeing Rodrick in the stomach. While he fell back, Rodrick managed to Kick Neaver in the face. Both stumbled back and stared at each other. "Looks like I've got no other choice, huh," Neaver said. I'll have to use my strongest magic." Rodrick looked a little surprised as more dirt collected on Neaver's arms. The dirt compressed and began to spin like drills, not only creating menacing weapons, but releasing dust into the air, gradually making it harder to see. But before dust cut visibility down enough for Neaver to attack, a clock tower in the distance struck midnight, and Rodrick disappeared. "Damn," Neaver said as he dropped all the dirt on his body. "Looks like I was too late, he's been teleported to the Trial Island."

"That's okay boss," Mr. Broke Jaw said. "We'll get him when he gets back."

"Unfortunately not," Neaver said. "Come on, idiot, let's go."

The final prologue will be longer than the other ones, possibly as long as all of them put together, and will be posted within a couple of days.

[Wolfenix]

Warning: violent and disturbing situations, be prepared if your going to read
Contains blood, profanity, murder, and domestic violence






Prologue, Part 5: Khelresa
7 years ago...(figure out the pattern yet?)
A little 8 year old girl sat in the corner, trying to hide her presence as her parents fought. This was a common occurrence in her household. Every day, her father would come home drunk and angry. Her mother was a sweet woman, though, and she didn't understand why she would love such a man. Her mother always said that her husband was once a nice person. Every time she said this, she would look at Khelresa and get a sad look in her eyes. Khelresa felt she had come to understand what this meant. It meant her father was a good man, before Khelresa was born. Yes, it seemed only her mother would care if she was gone. Khelresa listened intently to the argument her parents were having now. It was always one sided, with her father screaming, and sometimes hitting her mother. Khelresa knew that, even if somebody heard the fighting, nobody would come. Nobody wanted anything to do with her and her family.

"The fuck do ya mean, Penni!?" the father shouted, bottle of ale in hand. "I told you I wanted ta have a steak ready at 5:30. It's 5:40 now and you didn't even buy the fuckin' steak!" The man hiccuped a little. Penni backed up as her husband got closer, getting angrier by the second. "Why the fuck can't you do anythin' right? Is it so god damn hard to buy one god damn steak?"

"Klesriem, please calm down," Penni pleaded. "I made you dinner, but we don't have enough money to get steaks. We're barely making ends meat." Her back was now to the wall.

"Fuck do ya mean?!" Klesriem yelled. His face was completely red now, and Khelresa knew things were going to turn ugly in a minute. "Are you saying I don't provide enough for this family?! I have been working my ass off, so that you and that little rat monster of yours could have a roof over your heads, and you can't even fucking make me what I want to eat!" Penni tried to say something, but before she could, Klesriem punched her in the face. She fell to the ground, a little bit of blood coming from her mouth. "WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY?! HUH?!" Klesriem yelled as he kicked her in the stomach repeatedly. He finally took notice of Khelresa, crouching in the corner. Before she could move to run away, Klesriem grabbed her by the collar, and started screaming at her now. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT YOU LITTLE BITCH! EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT BEFORE YOU. WE HAD MONEY, WE HAD HAPPINESS! THE NEIGHBORS EVEN LIKED US BEFORE YOU CAME AROUND!" Done yelling, he threw Khelresa across the room. She hit the wall with a sickening thud, and fell to the floor. She was in pain, but she managed to slip out the door to the street, narrowly avoiding the ale bottle thrown at her.

"Why?" she thought to herself. Why did I have to be born? Who would care if I die? Who wouldn't be happier if I was dead? As she continued running, she ran into a person in the streets. He looked around, and like everyone else, a look of disgust came over his face.

"Get away from me, freak," the man said. He looked at her closer, to see that she was crying. "Quit your crying, monster, the world doesn't give a shit about your problems." With that, the man walked away. Khelresa looked down at her hands as she became more and more depressed.

"It's true that I'm different," she thought. "But, a monster... am I really... a monster?" If you could see her, you would understand why she was treated this way. Her parents were both human, but her appearance wasn't entirely. Her skin was darkened mix of gray and brown, and her hair and eyes were blood red. On top of this, she was sturdier than an average girl, with skin almost like a thin layer of leather. Her teeth were also sharper than other people, and she could see, hear, and smell things better than anybody she knew. But was she truly a monster? She had the same emotions that other people had. When she was hit, it hurt like it would hurt other people. And most of all, when she cried, were her tears not the same that flowed from the eyes of every other person? So it didn't make sense to her. Was it so wrong being different like her? she didn't understand it. As she thought about these things, it started to rain. She didn't want to go home, so she began to walk to the local park. As she walked, she was met everywhere with those hated glances. The shacks of this poor little town came to an end as Khelresa arrived at the park. It wasn't much really, just a large, wooded section. More of a small forest, really. She walked into the center of this forest, and took shelter from the rain underneath the trees. She sat for a couple of hours, thinking about all these horrible things. She was seriously beginning to contemplate suicide. As she became more and more depressed, she heard a sound in the bushes.

"SKRAWK," said the little creature that came out. Khelresa looked at it for a moment trying to figure out what it was. It was a small, black creature, walking on all fours. It had a jaw similar to a dogs, filled with razor sharp teeth. It's eyes were red, like hers, and it had two small horn-like things protruding backward from it's skull. It suddenly dawned on Khelresa that this was a young Sarkleen. Her town was near the border of Sarkleen territory, yet she had never seen one in real life. Despite the fact that she knew what it was, she wasn't scared. The creature walked up to her, sniffing her inquisitively.

"People always call you guys monsters," Khelresa said. "But then again, they call me a monster too. What do you think? Are they right? Are we really monsters?" The creature was right up to her now, but it wasn't attacking. Khelresa smiled at this. "You don't seem like a monster to me." A rustling came from nearby, and the Sarkleen ran away. Out of the bushes came Khelresa's mother.

"There you are," She said. "I've been looking everywhere, let's go home." Khelresa saw that there were a couple more bruises on her mother now.

"I don't want to..." Khelresa responded. "I don't want to go back to that house, or to father. I'd rather sit out here forever, away from all the people. I hate the way they all look at me, how they all treat me. Maybe, I just don't belong with other people." A very sad look came onto her mothers face. She sat down right in front of her daughter, and looked into her eyes. Her mother was the only person Khelresa cared bout. She looked closely at her face. Besides the bruises, Penni had a very nice face. Her black hair was collected into a bun behind her head, and her hazel eyes spoke of much kindness.

"You shouldn't think like that, Khelresa. It's true he isn't the best person ever, but he is your father. As for the towns people, they simply don't know who you are. But I do, Khelresa, your a beautiful girl, both inside, and out. Someday, I'm sure they'll see that in you as well." Despite how comforting these words were, they couldn't remove the pain Khelresa was feeling.

"I'll come home in a few hours," Khelresa said, looking away from her mother. "Right now, I just want to be alone to think." Her mother nodded, got up, and started walking away.

"Just get home soon. It'll be dark in a short while, and you don't want to be out at night." She smiled and said jokingly "You might get eaten by a Sarkleen."

"I already saw one," Khelresa replied. The look of horror on her mother's face as she spun around was even greater than it had been earlier when she was being hit by Klesriem. "It was nice, it sniffed me a bit, and ran off." Penni stood there a a while, staring at Khelresa. After a few moments, she turned around, and began to walk away. The look she had in her eyes was different than anything Khelresa had seen in them before. It was almost like she was scared... of her. Khelresa sat there for several more hours, more depressed than ever. The cold rain chilled her to the bone now, but she didn't care, in fact, she thought it was perfect. She now felt cold, both emotionally and physically. A frozen monster, forever shunned from society. Maybe she would head North, into Sarkleen territory. perhaps they would accept her, as a fellow monster. So she that there, all through the night, contemplating this prospect. Finally dawn began to break, and so did the rain. Khelresa got up, and started walking home. She didn't want to leave her mother to that horrible man, even if it meant several more years of pain and suffering. As she walked through the streets, she ignored the stares of people walking by. What could they do to her, they hadn't already? As she walked through the door to her house, she said "I'm home," but nobody responded. She went to her parents bedroom door, to hear them talking, more more seriously than Khelresa had ever heard before. she listened closely to what they were talking about.

"Damn it," Klesriem said. "Why the hell did this have to happen? What are we even supposed to do about it? The only people who could have told us are all dead!"

"I know," Penni replied. "But we can't just keep her in the dark, all the papers are locked in the closet, if we just..."

"NO!" Klesriem yelled. If she finds out, we don't know what she'll do. That brat's dangerous. They managed to contain the blood, but we don't know if she'll unleash it again. That girl is a ticking time bomb, just waiting to go off. If she was capable of injuring a grown man at 5 months of age than there's no telling how dangerous she is now."

"If she finds out now, maybe she won't freak out when her powers do unlock."

"I said no!" Klesriem was clearly on the verge of snapping again, even though he sounded completely sober. "I'm going out to get a..." As the door opened, Khelresa looked in horror up at her father, his figure seeming larger than ever. Quickly, He grabbed her by the throat and pressed her into the wall behind her. "What did you hear?!" He screamed, his eyes flushed with sickening hatred.

"I just..."

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU HEAR YOU LITTLE BITCH!!!"

" I didn't hear anything!" She said, trying desperately to breath with his hand clamping down on her airway.

"Klesriem! Stop it!" Penni yelled, trying to grab a hold of his arm. He dropped Khelresa, spun around, and slammed Penni into the opposite wall. Looking down at her he calmed down a little and headed for the door.

"I'll be back later," he said as he left the house, leaving his terrified wife and child behind. Penni looked over at her daughter, worried.

"Honey, what did you hear?" Khelresa only sat there, looking down at the floor. "Honey?"

"I'm going to my room," Khelresa replied. Penni watched nervously as Khelresa walked silently down the hall, went into her room, and closed the door. Hours passed, and Khelresa refused to come out. She hadn't eaten in a day, but she didn't care. She couldn't help but wonder about what her parents were talking about. There was something very important they weren't telling her, and she wanted to find out what. It was night again, and the sound of the front door slamming indicated that her father was home. Khelresa heard yelling from the kitchen, and her father sounded drunker than ever. She was tired of him abusing her mother. Khelresa pulled off a piece of wood from her broken down wall, and decided if it got too violent, she would try and protect her mother. She went out to see her father forcing her mother against the wall. Khelresa charged with the plank of wood, but her father grabbed it, and threw it across the room. He then turned back to Penni.

This part contains some sexuality, If you want to know what happened PM me

Khelresa blanked out for a second, and when she came to, see was mortified to see her fathers face, just inches away from her own. He wasn't breathing. She looked down, slowly, to see a sharp block of ice covering her right arm, and puncturing her fathers heart. She lay there, staring at those cold and lifeless eyes. Finally, she gathered the will to move, and dropped the corpse to the side. She got up, and walked over to her mother. Her head was still pouring out blood, even though she was already dead. Khelresa looked down at her hands, and saw they were still covered in Klesriem's blood. There was a long pause, and she finally let out a scream. This scream eventually transformed into a heavy sob, as she mourned the only person who had ever shown her any kindness. After several minutes of crying, she got up, and went to her parents room. It was time to find out why she was like this, and why things had to be like they were. She went into her parents closet, and found a locked box. She encased her fist in ice, and beat at the box until the wood finally smashed. Inside was a journal, that said on it The Gene Fusion Experiment. Khelresa began to read the entries steadily.

Day 1. The experiment has begun as planned, and we are currently searching for test samples. Not many people are likely to give over their children for this experiment, but we may find a few with sick children, willing to risk it for the possibility that they can keep their children alive. We currently have the help of Heroz, the Klarmick, in obtaining powerful Sarkleen to use. Very soon, we will begin trying to infuse the genes and abilities of the Sarkleen into people. If successful, the war against these monsters may one day have an end.

Day 5. We managed to find one couple with a 4 year old child that are willing to have him undergo the experiment. We are only using children because we have found evidence a fully grown persons body will flat out reject any attempts to infuse foreign DNA's. The subject is called Pritius, and we have already begun the process to alter his DNA. This would be impossible, but thankfully, we also have magic on our side.

Day 13. With the publicity that Heroz has gotten us, we have managed to acquire 3 more children in a relatively short amount of time. On another note, the subject Pritius is starting to integrate the Sarkleen genetics. We've already noticed a change in the subjects skin color, and expect that other traits will also develop soon. Heroz has been an amazing supporter of this project. He's even got us a Sarkleen that took 5 mage soldiers to contain. It will be truly fascinating to see the Klarmick's of the future.

Day 29. The project is a Success! Pritius is showing signs of having higher strength and sharper senses than most people his age. His parents are fairly happy with his growth, and the success is sure to boost the number of test subjects.

Day 34. Pritius has started developing a stray bump or two here and there. He is truly growing into the Sarkleen genetics we have given him. He already has the strength of somebody twice his age.

Day 43. It's unbelievable! the Norshen's have actually agreed to supply us with some of their DNA! They rarely interact with humans at all. With all three DNA's of all three predominate races, we may have something truly incredible on our hands. The physical strength of a Sarkleen, the willpower of a human, and the magic of a Norshen. The Territories of the North may be Sarkleen free within a few generations. In return, the Norshen have asked for some part of the land when it's conquered. Their home on the island continent Oblius is a third the size of our current territory, after all. On another good note, we have over 100 subjects now, much more than we ever expected to have at this point.

Day 52. Absolute success! Pritius has been subjugated to Norshen blood. We will wait until we see a visible reaction until we expose the other subjects to it. With luck, we will see an amazing alteration in the boys abilities.

Day 57. An intriguing change is occuring within Pritius. He is developing magic ability slowly, but is also losing some of the physical feature of a Sarkleen. More examination is required to tell how far this will go.

Day 71. The regression of Sarkleen features has appeared to cease. Right now, his hair, eyes, and skin appear different, but other than that, he definitely has a body fairly similar to a humans. He is now able to use magic, even at the age of four. This has been an absolute success, worthy of going down in history books. We will begin giving the Norshen blood to other subjects immediately.

Day 75. A change seems to have occured in Pritius' personality. Evidence seems to show that the blood of the Norshen and Sarkleen combined have a negative influence on the emotional state of the patient. The change is subtle, but something to be watched, nonetheless.

Day 78. The emotional change has only raised slightly in Pritius. It seems his brain is now integrating certain aspects of the Sarkleen and Norshen mentality. The Norshen are a calm race, and should cancel out most violent tendencies of the Sarkleen mindset. On a brighter note, we now have over 200 test subjects to use. I'm beginning to think that We may even be rid of the Sarkleen within this century.

Day 94. All the original subjects are now beginning to show the emotional disturbance. Most surprising, and splendid, was a little girl named Khelresa. She managed to hurt one of the researcher, even though she's only 5 months of age. Some other notable subjects are Tibies, and Polren. All three have shown enhanced magical power compared to the others. Pritius, though, remains the strongest.

Day 97. The experiments have ended in disaster. Pritius managed to get a key off of one of the researchers, and released the Sarkleen we had contained. He, and many of the other subjects then proceeded to help the Sarkleen kill the researchers. Despite the mage soldiers stationed there, Most of the people were killed. The Sarkleen were then loosed to go on a rampage in the city. A total of 78 people were killed.

Day 98. The king has requested the immediate termination of the project. The subjects have been deemed a risk to humanity, and the execution of all of them over the age of 2 has been ordered.

Two months have passed since that terrible incident. the subjects have been deemed as members of an entirely new species, named the Shorluns. We've found a way to repress the magical power of the remaining subjects. 32 copies of these journal clippings have been created, to show the children when they are old enough to handle it. Please remember to always keep your calm, no matter how bad things get. Some may think of you as monsters, but your not. Your simply, not human.

Khelresa was trying to rap her head around all this. So it was true, she had no place amongst humans. For whatever reason, her parents chose to enter her in this twisted experiment. Perhaps she was dying, and they were looking for a way to save her. It would have made sense, after all, people in this town were fairly poor, and unable to supply medical treatment. By turning her into a Shorlun, they ensured that she not only got the best doctors around to help her, but that she also developed a stronger body so she wouldn't get sick again. Reading this, everything seemed to make sense to her now. Khelresa had already made up her mind. She would leave this town, and the entire human nation. They wanted nothing to do with her, and now the only human she cared about was dead. Slowly but surely, she got up, walked out of the house, and started heading North. Before she got very far, she heard several screams in the town in front of her. She stopped and watched, and soon people came running down the street. They were being chased by the Sarkleen. Many of the Sarkleen were fully grown, but there were some the size of the one she saw in the forest. There wasn't just one type, though. The Sarkleen was the collective name of the entire grouping of black-skinned beasts. Some were as small as cats, and some were bigger than five men. Some were even capable of using simple magic. As the people ran by, the Sarkleen would stop and stare at her, and she would stare back. After a while, they would turn away and continue what they had been doing previously, slaughtering civilians. Khelresa was unaffected as blood began to run down the streets. As she walked, a man tripped and fell in front of her. It was the same one who she ran into on the streets yesterday. He looked up, scared, and began to plead to her.

"Please! Help me! I'll give you anything you want, my money, my horse, anything!. Please, the soldiers and officers are dead! You were part of that experiment right? You can stop them! Please, I don't want to die!" Khelresa stared into the man's frightened eyes.

"Quit your crying, human. The world doesn't give a shit about your problems." As she passed by him, he began to swear at her, but was silenced as a Sarkleen came down and crushed his skull. For this first time in a long while, Khelresa felt happy. She was leaving the shitty life she had before, and the town she had forever hated was beginning to burn to the ground. Bolts of fire started hitting the buildings in town rapidly, and she could hear the people hiding inside screaming as their skin was set alight. Khelresa saw that the source of the magical attacks was not a Sarkleen, but a man. He watched intently as she approached him. She walked up and asked "Why are you attacking the town, and not defending it?"

"Why aren't you?" The man said.

"It doesn't matter to me if the people die. I'm not one of them. To them, I'm as much a monster as the Sarkleen."

"Well," he responded, bending down on one knee to look at her face to face. "I see no monsters here. It's all just a construct of the human mind. What I see here are creatures, marked by the rest of the world as evil. These ideas, and the world as we know it are going to come to an end soon. I'm simply here to initiate the first step."

"Can I help you?" she asked. Khelresa saw this as an opportunity. Not only would she be free of the stares of the people she hated, but she would also be amongst those that accept her. Heroz smiled at this. He,too, saw an opportunity.

"Of course, but first, I want you to prove something to me. I want you to kill that person hiding behind that barrel over there." Without a word, Khelresa went over to the barrel. The man kicked it at her and tried to run, but wasn't fast enough. Khelresa dodged the barrel, formed a small blade of ice over her hand, and cut the tendons in his left leg. He fell to the ground and tried to yell, but Khelresa covered his mouth with her hand before he could.

"You all treated me like a heartless beast," She said. "And that's exactly what I'll become." Khelresa then formed a block of ice over the unknown man's mouth and nose, and pulled away. Heroz observed, pleased as she watched her victim try desperately to break the ice that was preventing him from breathing. After a few minutes of violent thrashing, his body stopped moving. Heroz walked up to Khelresa and put his hand on her shoulder. "Can I come with you now?" Khelresa asked.

"I'm afraid not, my little one. However, I do have a very particular task I need you to do. For that, I need to make sure the humans think you're on their side. First off, use your power to save a couple of people from these Sarkleen..."

Present day...
The civil officer was shocked by the sight he saw. The man on the grounds face had been shredded. "I thank you for your help, Khelresa, but your methods are a little too harsh sometimes.

"The man was guilty of rape," Khelresa said. "He's lucky I didn't tear him apart down there."

"Well, thanks anyways. Boy, I do not envy anybody who has to fight you at the trial. You Shorlun are fierce. Still, I like the fact your on our side."

"Of course I am, my mother was killed by a monster. I'd rather do what I can to remove those monsters, then go crazy and get killed like the other few hundred of my kind did. It's almost midnight, I have to go."

"Alright, Khelresa, I hope to see you again!"

"Oh, you can count on it." Khelresa was ready to go to the island, and begin the mission Heroz gave her all those years ago.

End of prologue. The first chapter will be up within a week or two.

[Wolfenix]

sorry for the late post. I had a bit of writers block
Chapter 1-1
Sam awoke with a sudden jolt. He felt like his insides were set on fire for a brief instant. He looked around to see thousands of other teens and preteens. It occurred to him that he must have fallen asleep, and that he was teleported to the start of the Trial of Destiny. Sam looked around, but couldn’t see Ritus anywhere. What he did see was that they were all outside, and about two-thousand feet away from him was a small bunker and tower. Atop the tower was a man wearing a brown cloak, and his voice began booming as he announced the details of the trial.

“Welcome, to all those that have chosen to participate in this trial. Most of you will fail this trial, some of you may even die. Those that do pass will get the honor of being enlisted as a mage soldier in the army of the human kingdom. I am Lervick, and it is my responsibility to educate you in exactly what you will be experiencing on this Island. I will begin by explaining the different parts of the trial. First of all, there is a three day period meant for preparation. These three days may seem boring, but they are the first part of the test. In this time, you will either pick a simple weapon made from wood or vine from our stock to use during the rest of the trial. If you are unsatisfied with these, we will give you the tools to make your own. You can not use bows and arrows, partly because it’s easy to kill some one with them, and partly because an arrow will not pierce the armor of a large Sarkleen. The second part is the one that most of you will fail at. We have nearly fifty-thousand volunteers this time, more than any other test in history. This means that nearly forty-nine thousand will fail. This is because only a thousand become mage soldiers. This does not prevent you, however, from becoming a regular soldier or civil officer in the future. That is, of course, unless you fall into the bottom twenty-five percent of people here. We don’t want reckless idiots who can’t even fight in the army. The people who will be left after this, will number a total of one thousand five hundred. As most of you know, is because 20 people out of this group will become Klarmick’s. The third part of the test will be to determine who will become one. This is the most dangerous part of the trial. By this time, most, if not all of the remaining contestants will be able to use magic. The chance of death is about one in fifty at best. This is the reason why we’ll have one thousand five hundred, rather one thousand and twenty. Once we dwindle the people down to fifty, those people will fight a Sarkleen under our supervision. Keep in mind, this is no baby Sarkleen. The one you will fight will be strong enough to tear apart several average people. Once this is done, the twenty deemed the strongest will be given the title of Klarmick. The remaining will be known as Honor Mages, and will be given jurisdiction over soldiers, both mage and regular.”

“Keep in mind, that is the only part of the test, besides these first few days, that we will be present. The way we will monitor your progress is with the teleport plates you have. If your wondering if there are any adults here, the answer is no. These plates are designed to shut off if the person in contact is above the age of fifteen, or below the age of ten. Before you leave, you will report to one of my many assistant at the bunker. They will turn your teleport plate into a necklace. The reason we don’t use the plates to go into Sarkleen territory is because these need a well established highly magical point. These necklaces will then be configured to teleport you back home if hit a certain number of times. If your 10, you have five tries. With each age you go up, you have one less try. So if your fifteen, and you trip and land on it, your out. Being clumsy can also get you killed in battle. If you have several tries, and the plate is hit, it will go dormant for a period of an hour, insuring that one person won’t just eliminate you right off the bat. The reason we have this test only once every five years is because it takes that much time to give these things enough magic for two trips. The reason we don’t use the plates to go into Sarkleen territory is because these need a well established highly magical point. If you fail during the second part, you will be transported to the mage soldier base nearest your town. If you fail during the third part, you will be transported to Fort Serilin, the largest mage soldier base in the kingdom. There, you will be given your first orders. Whether or not you fail to become a Klarmick during the final part, you will be transported by boat and luxury carriage to meet the king. There, you will be publicly named Klarmick or Honor mage.

Now I will explain the only ground rules, most which will no longer apply after three days time. Look around you, some of you may have already noticed a sizable perimeter fence. If you go outside of this area within the first three days, you will be eliminated from this trial. If you can not follow orders, you are not fit to be a mage soldier. The same is true if you do not get your teleport necklace. If you harm a fellow examinee during this time period, you will also be eliminated. Violent and rogue elements are not wanted amongst our troops. Next, if you try to prevent a person from obtaining a weapon or necklace, you will, as you’ve probably guessed, be eliminated. The same goes for food. During this period, we will give you food, and once the test begins, we will give you a sack with enough food for three days. This island is eighty-nine miles long and forty-three miles wide. It also has a variety of fruit and several streams, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to find food and water. If it is, simply hit your necklace until it sends you home. If you remove your necklace during the test to try and cheat, one of my assistants will personally find you send you back home. Lastly, do not attack anybody in the first two days of the second trial. If you are within 30 feet of somebody when they lose a try, you will too. This rule is set up so that people can spread out across the island a bit, and prevent the whole thing from becoming a free for all. One of the key things we want to test is your abilities in the wilderness. That is all, good luck to all of you.”

Sam watched as the man went back into the tower, than looked around at the people around him. Some looked tough, but there were quite a few that looked weak. Probably most of them just dreamed of glory, and thought this trial was an easy way to achieve it. “I’ll beat these fools easily,” Sam thought. He looked around to try to see Ritus, but amongst the crowds of people, was unable to spot them. Ritus always had a way of blending into the background, which might actually serve him well here. Sam decided he would find him eventually, and went to where the weapons were. A lot of people were scrambling to get the pre-made weapons, especially the people who had little crafting skills. Sam noticed one person was walking straight through the people easily. He looked a bit battered up, but extremely strong in body and mind. Sam figured that this was a guy who had a good chance of becoming Klarmick. After looking around, Sam was disappointed to see nothing that suited his tastes. As he went over to where some supplies for building your own weapon were being handed out, he looked back to see the boy strapping on a couple of wooden hand guards.

“Well aren’t you a lucky one,” a girl said as she faced down a larger guy. Sam looked, and saw that the girl in question had an odd skin tone. Sam just figured she was wearing some kind of war paint. “If the real test had already started, I would be painting this island red with your blood.”

“Ha!” the man said in response. “I’m not going to loose to some stupid beast like you. I’ll be sure to find and crush you like a tick as soon as we can start fighting.” Despite his talk, the boy couldn’t help but start to break out in a nervous sweat. Within the girl’s eyes was an instinct for battle that was vastly superior to his own. She just stared at him, those eyes speaking of all things horrid that she could do to him. As he continued to stand there, his hands began shaking, and his confident face turned to that of fear. “I, um… I’m sorry,” he managed to blurt out, his heart now thumping frantically. He turned, and began to look for a weapon, clearly trying to put the girl out of his mind.

“Can I help you?” one of the trial assistants asked Sam. Sam turned around to see he was at the weapon materials. He, like everybody else in the vicinity, had been caught up in the event that just transpired.

“Oh, right,” Sam said. “I need materials to build a weapon, specifically a sword.”

“Yes sir,” she replied, face hidden by the same type of cloak that Lervick wore. She handed him a large hunk of lumber, a carving knife, and a couple of measurement instruments. “You’ll have to go over to the designated crafting area. Take up one of the work benches and don’t use that knife for anything other than making a wooden weapon. If you do, our guards will throw you out of the area, or worse, have you eliminated.

“Thanks,” Sam said as he walked towards the crafting area. He had a weird feeling about this whole place. It wasn’t a bad feeling, he just wasn’t used to it. He had lived off of his adaptability, but this was different. He wasn’t hiding in the shadows anymore, stealing things and gradually becoming known as scum across the world. Here, he was one of several thousand, all trying to reach for glory. No, that wasn’t right, because he wasn’t just one. He grinned as he began to work on his sword. He was going to become a Klarmick, so that automatically made him different from them.
After a couple of hours, he decided that he had worked on his sword enough for now, and went to get something to eat.

1-2

It was morning now, and terrace was carefully carving his weapons. There was no limit to how many you could have, but there was a limit to materials. Terrace had decided that dual-wield daggers suited him best. He was careful about the detail, since he knew some thing others didn’t. One of which is that the weapon they give you if you pass the trial will be similar in design to your wooden one. This is because after months of fighting it would be the weapon your most experienced at handling. He noticed an almost timid looking boy carving a simple bow-staff on the bench next to him. The boy kept looking up from his bench, probably trying to find somebody.

“Did you lose somebody?” Terrace asked the boy.

He looked at Terrace nervously and replied “Uh, yes I did. My friend Sam. I thought it would be easier to find him than this. Have you seen him by any chance? He has brown hair, blue eyes, and is in about the same condition as me.” Terrace looked at the boy closely to see the poor condition of his clothes.

“I’ve seen a few like that,” Terrace replied. “The two largest groups of kids here are the rich ones who were sheltered from how tough life really is and the ones like you, who already know the troubles of life, and do this to escape some of them. Your going to have to be more specific.”

“Oh,” the boy said sadly. “Well, he’s really outgoing, and you might catch him pulling a prank. My name is Ritus by the way.”

“Terrace.” There was an awkward silence for a while and Terrace finally said “You don’t seem like you want to be here. I can tell that you have the strength, but not the courage.” Ritus looked away from him, a bit down-hearted.

“Yeah, I was never the type to do dangerous things. At least, not without Sam there.” Terrace felt everything he said was only serving to depress Ritus even more.

“Well, Ritus, why don’t you stick with me for a while? I know a few secrets to this island that others don’t. I can tell you them, and in turn you can tell your friend. It may help you in the first couple of weeks.” Ritus perked up after hearing this.

“What kind of secrets?” He asked.

“Well,” Terrace replied. “First off, there are many mountains on this island. Many think that their best bet to find water is to go into the valleys, but this isn’t necessarily true. There are several springs on the mountain tops. These springs usually run into some cave before they reach the valley. So by heading up the mountain, you can achieve three things. The first is that you’ll avoid a lot of people who will be in search of water. The second advantage is that you yourself will have water. The third one is that these caves can make for a nice shelter. Don’t go too deep though, because the caves are dangerous and can go on for miles. The trial overseers can track your whereabouts thanks to your necklace, but there’s a good chance they’ll be too late.” Ritus was listening to him carefully, glad to have some helpful information. “Also,” Terrace continued. “There’s a type of grass up there that acts as a sleeping agent. This grass will have a yellow bulb at it’s tip. You can use this to catch small game. I’ve even heard some really stealthy people can put this in other people’s drinks. That done, they hit the person’s teleport necklace and steal their stuff.”

“How do you know this?” Ritus asked.

“Well, my father was a Klarmick at one time. He thought me some of the tricks he used.” Terrace saw Ritus’ eyes light up in admiration. It was the same with many people.

“Your father was a Klarmick!” Ritus exclaimed. “That must mean your pretty strong too. What was his name”

“I’d prefer not to say,” Terrace said somberly.

“Oh,” Ritus replied, a little disappointed. “It must be annoying for you then. I mean, people always say that the children of famous people get overlooked.” A little bit of time went by, and Ritus had almost completed his bow staff. “You know,” Ritus said. I only saw one Klarmick before, but by that time, he wasn’t one.” Ritus stopped carving, remembering a past that could never return. Terrace had a suspicion that he knew who Ritus saw.

“What town were you born in?” Terrace asked, both hoping and fearing that his hunch was right.

“Yeshwire,” Ritus said reluctantly.

“That’s him,” Terrace said, sadness and anger filling up his heart. Ritus looked up at Terrace, a bit confused. “My father is the person who destroyed your town.” Ritus’ eyes opened wide, and he just sat there staring at Terrace. After a while Ritus picked up his unfinished bow-staff.

“I’m going to go ahead and look for my friend,” Ritus said. “I’ll see you later.” Terrace continued working on his daggers while Ritus walked away awkwardly.

1-3

Aiisha sat on the ground, eating her fill of roasted Ruskiin, a rat-like creature that inhabited the island. A day and a half had gone by since they had been briefed on what would be involved in this trial, and she was getting tired of waiting for the action to start. She was approached by Eresha, who had just finished working on her weapons. Eresha found Aiisha easily, within the first ten minutes they had been on the island, in fact. “So?” Aiisha inquired. “Are you going to show me them?” Eresha was always one to keep secrets till the end, and the making of her weapons was no different. Aiisha was puzzled when Eresha pulled out a bag full of small wooden balls. Each one was only a couple of inches in diameter, and Eresha had what looked like forty to fifty of them. “What? Why’d you make those?” Aiisha asked. “They look like they’d make horrible weapons.”

“Well,” Eresha replied. “We only need to hit the necklaces with enough force to activate them. “These should be good enough for that.” Eresha sat down, and grabbed for some bread that Aiisha had set aside. Aiisha didn’t mind. The two girls had always shared everything they had, though she had to admit, Eresha usually had more to offer. Aiisha looked at what Eresha was wearing now. Although she did have the Sarkleen skin on, what Eresha wore on top of it hardly looked like I t would stand up to battle. It was a white robe that hid every part of her body from the neck down. A few people had snickered at it, saying that wearing that, she’d definitely fall or get caught on a branch and fail before she even saw battle. Aiisha knew better though. Eresha doing something clumsy was about as likely as the moon disappearing. Just then, Aiisha looked up to see the moon disappearing.

“What the hell!” she exclaimed, almost choking on her food.

“Relax,” Eresha said. “It’s only a lunar eclipse. We don’t have them often, only once every couple of decades in fact, but it‘s perfectly natural. Our planet, Orius, is blocking the light from the sun, so we can’t see a reflection of the light coming from the moon. Aiisha, now not panicking, looked up again. As the moons light faded, the stars in the sky seemed to shine brighter than they ever have before.

“Eresha? Aiisha asked.

“Yes?”

“I know that you don’t tell what you see with your psychic readings, but I just want you to tell me one thing.” She looked over at Eresha to see her adorning her “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t” face. Aiisha chuckled and said “So, was the fortune a good one?” Eresha sighed and looked back up. The moon was beginning to show again.

“It was a good fortune,” Eresha said. “But like I’ve told you before, there’s an 85% chance that I’m wrong. I really think it’s better that way. If we knew everything the future held, life wouldn’t be fun or exciting.”

“Geez,” Aiisha said, laying on her back and rolling her eyes. “I asked for a yes or no answer, not for a lecture.” She looked up at Eresha and smiled. Eresha smiled back, and lay down with her, looking up at the sky.

They lay for only a few seconds, when they heard a commotion start about twenty yards away. A tall, strong looking guy, was getting hit in the stomach by a much smaller boy. The kid was yelling “You broke my big brother’s arm! I’m going to hurt you for that!” The larger guy was just standing there looking down at the boy like it was some tiny animal trying to nibble on his foot.

“It was his fault,” the larger boy replied. “He challenged me to a fight, so I fought him. A person shouldn’t fight when they know they can’t win.”

“Shut up!” The younger boy yelled. It was clear that whatever happened, happened before they reached the island, otherwise the larger boy would have been kicked off for breaking the rules. As a matter of fact, Aiisha was expecting the trial assistants to disqualify the younger one, but they didn’t step in. “My brother was going to be a sports star!” the boy continued to yell. “He was going to be a famous gorshball player!” As the boy continued hit the larger one, he fell over. When he did, the one he’d been hitting fell down.

“I hold no quarrel with you,” the larger boy said. “Your brother was hanging out with the wrong people, the kind that go around making themselves look tough by picking on others. I stepped in to stop it, and they fought me. In the midst your brother got hurt. Had he not chosen to be with them, he would still be in top shape, but even if he is hurt, if he puts enough time and effort into it, he can still accomplish his dream.” The small boy was crying a bit now, and it was clear he had just barely crossed the age boundary for the trial. “What’s your name?” the larger one asked.

The other one began wiping his tears and said “I’m Erion, but, how did you who my brother was?”

“You look a lot like him, and I never forget a face,” the larger boy said, extending his hand out to pick up the boy. “I’m Rodrick, by the way.” Erion looked at Rodrick’s hand for a minute, but got up himself, obviously still furious at Rodrick. He turned around, and walked off, acting tough.

Aiisha went up to one of the trial assistants and asked “Why did you let that go on?”

The assistant looked at her, and replied, mater-of-factly “Young ones often need a lesson or to from the older combatants. If we had interfered, it would have hindered his ability to get through the trial. It
may not seem like it, but that kid’s going to have a better chance now. He was nervous before, but now he has purpose, and will try harder. His purpose, right now, is to get strong enough to avenge his brother. As this trial wears on, he’ll learn that it’s a ridiculous goal, but that determination will keep him around until then.”

“In other words,” Eresha said. “A pointless goal is better than no goal at all.”

“Exactly,” the assistant replied.

The next two days went by in a flash. In that time, each person completed their weapons, packed enough food and water to last them for a while, and prepared to head out. Ritus was unable to find Sam, despite the grounds being so small. In fact, many times they had been only a few yards from each other, but Ritus’ ability to blend in with the background was so great that Sam had been unable to spot them. Because of this, Ritus decided to team up with Terrace, despite knowing who his father was. Sam, Khelresa, and Rodrick were set to head out on there own, despite the danger in this. Although all three had no fear of group attacks, only Sam was underestimating the other people. Finally, Aiisha and Eresha were fully packed, but Eresha was holding them up trying to see what she could in the crack of a bone she threw in a fire.

“I hope you are all prepared,” Boomed the voice of Lervick. All the people were at the edge of the starting area, watching and waiting for him to give the signal atop his tower. “This test has been carried out for over a millennia, and in that times, there have been many thousands who have been a select few chosen as mage soldiers, and even fewer were chosen as Klarmick’s. I hope to see, several weeks from now, many of you standing before me again, not as the weak, spoiled brats that many of you are, but elite units, trained by the harshness of nature and your fellow man. There is no consolation prize, if you get hurt or die, that’s simply what happens. Now that I have no more to say, you may begin.” Lervick watched as the people dashed in all directions, some of them already showing signs of high athletic capability, and some of them stumbling over their own feet. He already had a good idea of who would and wouldn’t pass.

1-4

Serin dashed across the sands of the beach, heading towards the South. He smiled, confident of his victory. He had spent months looking up reading materials on the layout of the island. There was a rock formation on the Southern coast of the island, which could provide him with not only a good shelter, but an excellent place to see other contestants from. If he got there first, he would have a distinct advantage in the game. He was confident he could reach it first. He was the fastest runner in his town, even faster than the civil officers or soldier. As he ran, he began to notice a figure in front of him. He stopped, not knowing what it was. As it raised it’s arm, he realized it was a person.

A cold, stabbing pain shot through his right arm. He looked down to see a shard of ice embedded in his arm, it’s point sticking out the other side. He screamed and fell on the sand, not sure what to do as blood began pouring out. He looked, horrified to see the person in the distance was the beastly girl he insulted three days ago. He tried to get up, but another ice shard shot through his Achilles tendon, causing him to fall again to the ground. “She can’t do this!” he thought. “She’ll be disqualified.” It then dawned on him that the rules only eliminated people within thirty feet of him, and she was easily over a hundred feet away. Scared, he began to try and crawl, but four more ice shard struck him, two in the shoulders, and two in the hips.

He was terrified, and unable to move, he tried shifting his body, but the beach’s incline cause him to slide towards the water. He struggled harder, but his struggling only served to deposit him in a ditch in the sand. It was only a few inches deep, but without the use of his arms or legs, he was stuck there. He felt water splashing against his side, and realized that the tide was coming in. “Help me!” he screamed. “For the sake of the gods, help me!” He was hysterical now, and was beginning to cry.

“Why,” yelled Khelresa, now only 35 feet away. Serin looked up at her, his face covered in sand and tears.

“Please!” he begged. “I don’t want to die! I’ll do anything!”

“Anything, huh?” She replied. Khelresa walked up to him and placed one foot in front of his face. “Kiss my foot and say you’re a pathetic, worthless, whelp,” she said. He looked at her foot and, swallowing his pride, began to kiss it.

“I’m… I’m a pathetic, worthless, whelp,” he said, fighting back even more tears. Khelresa chuckled a bit, and Serin looked, up, relieved, just in time to be kicked in the face. The kick sent him rolling into the ocean.

“If your so useless,” Khelresa said, “Then why should I save you.” Serin watched as she walked away. His body was beginning to sink, and he was trying desperately to fight for air. “It’s ironic,” she said, looking back at him. “That speed you seemed so proud of, is what killed you. Thanks to it, your too far for anybody to hear your screams. Oh well, better leave before you drown, eliminating me by accident.” Her figure was the last thing he saw before he sank beneath the water’s surface.

Khelresa looked around her surrounding. White sand was beneath her feet, and palm trees and tall grasses were all around her. With the addition of the sun’s warm rays, it was just like a tropical paradise. It was also the kind of whether Khelresa hated the most. She started walking towards the mountains in the North. Her personal revenge had sidetracked her from her mission. “Oh well,” She thought. “Regardless of what’s on this island, my target will be one of the final few people. After all, power is in their genetics.”

Khelresa walked onward into the forest. Several minutes later, with her acute hearing, she picked up the sound of a girl screaming from where she came from. Her victim’s mangled corpse had probably washed onto the shore. It didn’t matter much to her. He would be one of many that she would kill on this island. It’s a fact that the trial assistants didn’t help during fights, or interfere if others are killed. A violent being would simply be placed in the middle of Sarkleen territory by themselves if they passed the test.

Meanwhile, on another part of the island, Rodrick was beginning to set up his shelter. He was the very image of a “macho” man . He was strong, preferred action over words, and if given a knife would come out of a forest two hours, covered in blood carrying a dead animal over slung over his back. He was finishing up the insulation of a basic, A-frame shelter, when a coconut came hurtling towards his head. He didn’t even look away from his work when he caught it.

“That would have gotten you disqualified, if it had hit,” he said.

“Shut up!” a boy said as he came out of the bushes. It was Erion. He was a boy who seemed like the complete opposite of Rodrick. He was small, and was already fighting back tears. On top of that, he almost tripped coming out. Rodrick managed to catch him before his plate was hit, but Erion shook him off immediately after. Why this boy chose to enter this trial was nothing short of a mystery. Rodrick could tell though. He knew from the start that his brother getting hurt was just a pathetic excuse for Erion.

“You should watch your step. Your not going to last long at the rate your going.” Erion just pouted and turned away.

“What do you know?” He said.

“I know when a man is being foolish,” Rodrick responded. Erion was getting red in the face. He didn’t want to listen to what Rodrick had to say, and began walking away. Before he could get far Rodrick hit him on the head, knocking him out, but not injuring him. When Erion woke up again, he found himself tied up in vines, in the middle of Rodrick’s shelter.

“Let me go!” he yelled. Rodrick looked in through the A-Frames opening back at Erion. Erion Could hear crackling of a fire and smell food cooking over it now. Rodrick sat at the opening and began to eat some cooked meat he had. Seeing it made Erion’s stomach growl, and he realized it must have been hours since he last ate. “No fair!” he cried. “Let me out you idiot!”

“No,” Rodrick replied. “I’ll give you food when you get out of the vines.

“Why!” Erion yelled, smashing against the branches on either side of him pointlessly.

“Those vines aren’t very strong,” Rodrick told him in a stern voice. “If you can’t break out of them to get some food, you have no chance of becoming a mage soldier.

“Who asked you to help?” Erion said.

“Nobody. I can just tell when a man has something to prove.” Erion stopped thrashing, and angrily looked at Rodrick, who now had his back turned. After a few moments, Erion started trying to break the vines.