Chapter 3: Volume 1 – Chapter 2

With the big day finally here, Tal had put on his best clothes, washed in the local river, and combed his hair in order to be as presentable as possible. He had arrived at the temple with time to spare and sat down, waiting for his turn. Both the floors and the walls of the main hall were covered in white, polished stone plates, with twelve columns in two rows supporting the ceiling

A servant couple from the old hill house were presenting their newborn to the priest who was conducting the blessing ceremony.

Since he had heard the same speech before, Tal just looked around to see if anything had changed. As usual, that was not the case. There were the same decorative carved wooden chairs, and the same twelve statues depicting each of the main Gods of the world.

His gaze briefly stopped on the statue depicting God of Wisdom. He was portrayed as a man dressed in a hooded robe with a large owl sitting on his shoulder.

'Is that owl staring at me?' Tal mused and quickly looked elsewhere. 'That's just silly, it's nothing more than a stone statue.

Once again, he stared at a statue depicting a woman with a crow sitting in her outstretched hand.

'She takes the souls to their next lives.' She took everyone besides him. The priest had told him to always cherish the memory of his family but to not blame the Goddess for doing what she was meant to do. It was easier said than done; a lot of people lost their close ones that year.

"Hey, Tal!" A familiar voice called to him in a hushed tone. He turned to his right to see Tomas waving for him to come over. Tal quickly stood up and walked to the acolyte.

"Come, I can do the appraisal. Vieira is in his long speech mood today. This one is going to take a while." the young acolyte said with a knowing laugh and led Tal up to the second floor.

The central office was a cozy room with one central table, and two guest chairs, with each wall being covered with bookshelves. Adela, who was sitting behind the table, stood up, cleared her throat, and started to speak in a ceremonial voice. "Tal from the Large Oak home, today we welcome you…"

'This is going to be a drag, I just know it.' Tal grimly admitted to himself. Ceremonies were never his thing, and he had no way of getting out of this one.

Adela then promptly burst into laughter. "Sorry, you should have seen your face! Don't worry, we will not bore you with the full ceremony."

"Of course if you want we can do the full shtick… " Tomas added in with a mockingly serious tone.

"No, thank you." Tal hastily responded.

"Sure, Tal, we are not going to torment you today. Sit down, let's start." Adela said with a giggle and took out a blank, metallic-looking card and put a folder next to it. "You are Tal from the Large Oak Home found in Aldana Barony?"

"Yes."

"Today is your sixteenth birthday?"

"Yes."

"Well, since you don't have additional names or titles, that's about it. I guess only the appraisal remains." Adela said as she cast a spell on the blank card.

"On it. Sit still for a moment. You're not even going to feel it." Tomas said, putting his hand over Tal's head.

Tal tensed up. This was it he would find out if he had something special about him.

"Average strength, above average intellect but nothing too noteworthy… Oh magical rating…" Tomas slowly spoke with his voice spiking in excitement when he got to the magic rating "Only three points…. Nothing else of note." he added, clearly disappointed.

"Is three points that bad?" Tal asked. There it was, he wasn't anything special after all. Maybe this magic rating was something good? Surely he would be able to do something with it.

"It's not bad per se but nothing special either. If you had over five we would have to report it to the baron and maybe he would sponsor your education and hire you."

"S-so three is bad?"

"It's not hopeless. I mean, you can cast some base spells and enchants with that rating. It will not make you rich, but you can make a decent living, and if you practice regularly, who knows? You could qualify for the first-grade spell-caster in a few years." Tomas said.

"What should I do then?" Tal asked, a little bit lost about what to do with the newfound information.

"You can always join the temple." Adela said.

"I…um…"

"Eh… I know you don't want to join the temple and forcing someone only leads to bad things in the long run. Hey, you know what, I can write you a recommendation letter, in case you decide to seek employment in the bigger cities. I'm sure some merchant would take you under their wing and pay for basic spellcaster training. As far as I know, it's not that expensive." Tomas said as he walked around the table and took out a sheet of paper from a drawer.

"That sounds great." Tal responded, excited by such a prospect.

"Just don't forget about us when you are some bigshot in the capital." Adela said, finishing the identification card.

"I won't, I promise."

"That's good. One last thing." Adela said, grabbed Tal's hand, and quickly pricked his index finger with a small needle.

"Hey!" Tal shouted.

"Relax, crybaby, I just need one drop of blood for the card to be active," Adela said, and pressed the corner of the card against the finger.

"You could have at least warned me."

"All great things require sacrifice." Adela said with a mockingly serious voice.

"Right…" Tal said and put the pricked index finger in his mouth.

"That should be it. I'm sure Vieira will not mind If I use his seal." Tomas remarked, pressing a small metal box against the paper. A lightly glowing mark appeared for a moment and then dimed, leaving 'LV' initials behind.

"Good luck then. Come visit us when you can." he said, handing Tal the letter in an open envelope.

"Thank you." Tal said, taking the letter and card. He quickly shoved the letter in his pocket, put a thread through the small hole in the card and hung it around his neck.

"Just don't lose it. Replacement costs twenty silver." Adela said.

"I'll be careful and visit when I can. Thank you for everything." Tal said once again, leaving the temple office. He quickly left the building as the head priest was still performing a speech, just like Tomas predicted.

He was an adult now, and he had a ticket to some sort of success in the form of minimal magical proficiency and a recommendation letter. The only larger city he knew was Ovalle which lay to the east, at least a ten-day walk away.

That meant he needed to be prepared for a journey, and on top of that consider how to travel with Mishi remaining unseen. Even if people would let her stay in their homes, she would likely refuse anyway.

'So many things to do. Finally, I can have something better than just working for scraps. I need to prepare food and clothing. Oh, I need to check on my boots as well. Does Mishi even wear shoes? I haven't seen any.' Tal walked towards his home at a brisk pace, ready to embark on the biggest journey of his life

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Since it was still early noon, Mishi was still in the forest hunting and foraging. That meant Tal would be on his own for a few more hours.

He decided to start with his leather boots, which had wooden soles, and took them off to inspect for damage.

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'Still good. Should be good enough for a few months.'

Next was the inspection of the storage area. There was about a week's worth of food for two, which wasn't enough to reach Ovalle, but they could forage and Tal could do some odd jobs at the farms on the way there.

Lastly, he checked the small money pouch hidden behind a box with various tools. Most of them would be left behind, but he would obviously take smaller things like knives and scissors with him. The pouch had fourteen silver coins, eight big copper coins, and about forty small copper coins, which wasn't much but most likely would be enough to buy a few weeks' worth of food in the city.

Finally, he inspected his two sets of clothes and, finding nothing major to fix, decided to start making dinner.

He quickly gathered enough sticks from the pile outside and lit the fireplace. While the fire started, he walked to the nearest well for water and then put a pot with dried vegetables and leftover scraps of meat over the fire to simmer.

Time flew by fast as he did small jobs around the house. Only when the entrance door creaked did Tal notice the passage of time.

"I didn't catch anything today, but I found a nice spot with berries," Mishi said as she walked in.

"That's at least something. I got my papers." Tal said in an excited voice.

Mishi froze up. "And?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"I have an introductory letter. We can move to Ovalle, I can train as ench…"

"What do you mean we?"

"Well, I can finally start doing better than working for scraps we can have…"

"There is no way! I can't go there!" Mishi hissed.

"Come on, don't be like that. We have been supporting each other for two years. I'm sure we can find some quiet place where not a lot of people are around so you don't have to worry about being seen."

"Like what? I am not going. You can run off or do whatever you want!"

"But it would be better for both of us." Tal said in a confused voice. Sure she would still need to hide, but if he could get a normal job they could at least have an easier life. Even around larger cities, there were still plenty of wooded areas. At least it seemed like that according to the few maps he had seen when visiting the town hall.

"You are naive and stupid! You don't know what they… Ah, forget it. You do whatever you want." she said with her voice trembling and her hands clenched into fists. Tal looked down and noticed a drop of blood falling from her left hand.

"Mishi. I promise, I will do everything…"

"Do what? Protect me? Be a fucking hero? It's safe here with few humans around. You have not seen how bad humans can be, you don't know what they do to animals like me!" she cried out.

"You are not an animal!"

"I am to them!"

"Mishi, if you don't want us to go…"

"There is no us!" she shouted once again and ran out, slamming the door behind her.

'What did I do wrong? Why was she so mad? Is it really that bad for her kind in cities?' All those thoughts whirled in his mind as he stood in the middle of the room.

After a moment, he ran out running towards the forest as fast as he could.

"Mishi, come back! Please!" he shouted.

There was no answer. Tal knew he would not be able to find her if she didn't want to be found.

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Mishi didn't come back the next day or the day after that. Two weeks had passed since she stormed off.

Once again, Tal was walking through the woods in the evening, repeating "Mishi, I'm sorry. If you want we can stay here. You don't have to live in the forest alone." At this point she should have heard it at least once. After another fruitless search for his friend, Tal returned home.

He could not wait much longer. Travel during autumn would be much harder than in the warm summer. A few more days and he would have to decide whether to move and leave her behind or remain at his home hoping that she would return one day.

Ultimately, he didn't even know how she felt about all this. They rarely talked about anything besides practical things. Maybe she just stayed at his home because it was easier than living in the woods. He brought food home much more consistently than her. Of course, she had her good catches, but it was not always so.

After another two days, he went to the forest one last time and this time repeated. "I have to go. I can't wait for you any longer. If you want for me to stay then come out. Please."

No response. 'Maybe I'm just talking to myself and she is gone?'

In any case, he would set out on his journey tomorrow morning. Tal still had food for five days, and the rest he would earn on the way there. It would take a few days longer if he worked on farms he would pass on the way, but it was safer than relying on what he could find in the forest and fields.

The journey surely would not be an easy one, but if he ever wanted to be more than someone who did bottom barrel jobs for scraps, he had to go.

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She could hear Tal's voice. He was calling for her again. Asking her to come back.

'He wants to go. He would not keep me around for long.'

Humans were like that. At best someone like her was kept as a pet, if they were cute enough, at worst… She did not want to recall the worst. As much as she wanted to believe that her friend was different, he was still a human. He even liked her that way.

Mishi shuddered at the memory. It wasn't his fault. He was alone and she was… At least he wanted to see her as a person, unlike many others.

Tal called out once again. Asking for forgiveness. He just wanted a better life.

Mishi moved further away. It wasn't hard to sleep in the forest while the weather was good, after that she would have to seek a new home. With Tal gone, the small hut she had lived in for the last two years could be given to someone else.

'Why did things need to change? What if I hadn't gotten scared? No, he would want a better life, either way, to have someone normal with him.'

Day after day, Tal came into the forest looking for her. Avoiding him wasn't hard, but she still followed him around. It would take just a few steps to reach him and go back to how things were.

Then one day Tal came and said goodbye. He asked for her to come out and tell him if she wanted him to stay.

'I could… He would not hurt me… I… No… This is for the best.' Mishi ran. He had his own life to live among them, and she? She was different and would never fit in.

Proofreading - placid_void

Edited by Edgy.

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