Akai found himself holding a backpack and marching through the woods. By his side was Lacy who had her hair tied back and wearing a cloak over her clothes. By Lacy was Akai’s mother, Jennifer, who also wore a cloak. In the rear of their group was Kidd, marching confidently as they walked along the rough dirt road through the forest.

  “Thank you for agreeing to come along” Lacy said, adjusting the backpack on her own shoulders.

  “It really isn’t an issue” Jennifer said back. “I hadn’t been to the city in a while and I’m sure Akai would enjoy the trip too.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been wanting to see what it’s like.”

  Finally, after a long time of marching, it was getting too dark to see comfortably. Lacy sat down and rubbed her legs, aching from far more walking than she was used to with more weight than she was accustomed to.

  The rest put their packs down, Akai and Kidd beginning to set up their camp. Pitching two tents and setting a small fire pit in a clearing by the road.

  “This is going to be the first night I spend so far away from home.” Akai mentioned, his mother then smiling and agreeing. “You’ve never left the village yet so yeah, if I remember it’s going to be roughly 3 days of walking at this pace to get to the city. Well, as long as nothing is blocking the way.”

  The four of them quickly settled in, Akai easily lighting a fire by little more than a wave of his hand. Preparing some of the food that Jennifer had packed, they got a simple soup going before heading to bed. Akai and Kidd have to share a tent and Lacy and Jennifer share the other. They only brought two tents to save on weight.

  As Akai fell asleep, he found himself waking up in the body of the Phoenix King again as he dreamt. This time, he was younger than last time, and not yet king. Just Ken of the Phoenix Clan. Roughly around 16 in age.

  Wearing loose clothes meant for training in, he sat on the sandy ground of a training field in front of his father.

  “Focus on the feeling within your heart, Ken. And bring it forth slowly.”

  Ken would close his eyes and focus.. Soon feeling an ember residing within himself. He tried to bring it forwards and after a minute of effort, he soon opened his eyes and the yellow glow of his fire appeared behind them.

  “Good, you can feel and pull the flames within you. The phoenix’s fire is a powerful thing, but it is also dangerous if not managed.”

  The father adjusted himself and said “It is an aggressive fire, and must be burnt when it is born. If you let too much linger within yourself, it will burn you too.”

  Ken lost his concentration and looked up, a bit worried about this. He asked “What do you mean? How do you use it if it will hurt you?”

  “Unlike sorcery where you stockpile the energy within yourself, this fire must be used as it is formed. You will feel when it is done wrong and if you don’t push it, you won’t have any lasting damage.”

  The father gestured to ken and said “Go, ignite the smoldering ember within yourself. But do not release its heat.”

  Worriedly, Ken nodded. He closed his eyes and focused, calling on the phoenix’s fire within himself and did not expend it. He brought it to the same level he was at before and felt nothing, but as he let it grow into a small flame, it took no time before severe burning pain filled his chest. He let go of the fire and it receded, ken clutching his chest and gasping for air.

  “You see, it is quite painful. Do not push the pain of your fire beyond that level, or else it will cause you many problems. Control how much of it you call forth, and always control how fast you use it to match.”

  Ken took a minute to recover from the sudden pain and let it slowly fade. He then asked “And the limits?” He asked, recalling a memory that Akai could feel was there but not see himself.

  “As your body grows stronger, the amount of fire you command will increase. Should you try and command more than you can control, it will end in disaster. It will burn your own life to sustain itself if left unchecked.”

  Ken nodded and reassumed his formal sitting position. His father got up and planted a hand on his head. “Train well, my son.”

  The rest of Akai’s dream was Ken practicing controlling the fire he could bring to bear, staying just beneath the limit of what he could handle.

  Suddenly, Akai was awoken in the early morning. The sun had yet to rise but the sky was beginning to shift from black to blue. Kidd was shaking him and groaning “damn it, Akai, stop that. You’re making the tent unbearably hot”

  As Akai sat up, he yawned and asked “What? What are you talking about?”

  Kidd jabbed a finger into Akai’s chest and said “you.” before retracting his finger and shaking it. “Do you not feel how hot you are? If you didn’t have fire magic, I’d be worried you were cooking alive from a fever.”

  Akai looked down at himself and not just now felt it did feel a little warm. He got out of his blankets and stepped out of the tent, feeling the cool morning air.

  Akai was a bit confused, but he remembered the dream.. He decided to see if what he was thinking was true and relaxed. And just as he thought Akai felt an ember in his chest subside and the air around him suddenly felt a good bit colder. “Was I doing that in my sleep..?” he muttered to himself.

  He sighed and decided to go ahead and get breakfast ready since it will be morning soon enough. Gathering a few sticks to stoke the embers of the campfire, he began to heat some water and warm up some of the food left over from last night. By the time it was ready, he saw some movement coming from the other tent. The canvas flap parted to reveal a sleepy looking Lacy who had yet to brush her hair. “Good morning.” She yawned before stepping out of the tent, followed by Jennifer a few moments later. Kidd was the last one to actually get up and get something to eat. When they finished breakfast, did their morning routines, and pack up camp, Akai readied his backpack which was mostly filled with the tent.

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  With that, they went back to walking down the road. Akai walked in front and Kidd took the rear so if by some freak accident they were attacked by a monster, Jennifer and Lacy wouldn’t be in harm's way.

  They walked and noticed dark clouds beginning to form overhead. And surely enough, around noon, they felt the first few rain drops. Akai and the group set up under some trees. Akai and Kidd used the oilcloth from their tent kits and set up a dry place to sit. Jennifer and Lacy definitely did not want to walk through mud. They all sat together under the shelter and decided to wait for the rain to pass. It let up after a few hours but maintained a light drizzle and didn’t seem like it would actually stop soon.

  “I think we should keep going, because there’s no guarantee it won’t continue to rain later.” and the rest agreed. After taking a few minutes to pack up, they began their trek again. The group walked and passed the fork in the path that heads up to the mountain, and it looked like they would need to take the detour. Around 20 minutes of walking past the fork, where the path ran between a cliff and a river. Normally, even after rain, the path was safe to travel. But today, the path was blocked. A mudslide had ran down from the cliff and rendered the path non-traversable.

  “Do you think we can get past it?” Lacy asked, holding her hood up to keep the light drizzle from hitting her face.

  “No, this is all too soft. We’ll get stuck in it.” Akai said, trying to step on some of it but pulling back before hit boot got stuck in the mud.

  “We need to head back and take the mountain pass,” He said.

  Lacy’s shoulders slumped and muttered “I might need someone to carry me..” she muttered.

  Jennifer sighed and said “Alright, lets head back.”

  The group walked back, this time Kidd taking the lead. They went to the branching path and began to ascend the mountain.

  Come the evening, they set up camp again. Akai asked “How long is the mountain pass detour, mom?” And Jennifer said “It’s going to take us an extra two days of walking.”

  Hearing this, Lacy groaned. She sat down and was rubbing her own feet.

  Taking the time to set up a camp fire, eat some food, they all went to bed. Kidd said “And don’t do that thing again and make it stupid hot in here again.”

  “I’ll try not to.” He said as he laid down under his blankets.

  Two days later the group were heading down from the mountain, Kidd had ran ahead a bit to scout. They had heard some odd noises coming from the area last night, so they were a bit on edge right now for what could be out there. Kidd and Akai were worried about another graylock while Jennifer and Lacy thought it was just a wild animal and not too much to be worried about.

  Walking, walking, and more walking, they soon left the forest on the north side of the mountain and were entering a set of sparsely wooded plains. In the distance, they saw a walled city and saw many carriages and groups of people walking to and from through a set of gates. Above each gate flags flew of the kingdom of Legonia and the city’s own crest, a wide branched elm tree.

  “And there’s Elmswick city.” Jennifer said, smiling as they finally were in sight of the place.

  “Lets go.” She said, urging the rest to keep walking. Finally in the clear, Akai and Kidd walked by the sides of Jennifer and Lacy. Reaching a more pronounced road and soon waiting in a short line to enter the city through the gate.

  “Why can’t we just go in?” Akai asked, and Jennifer said “Because they’re doing identity checks. It wasn’t that long ago we were having a border conflict with the Rivell Dynasty to our west. Though, I don’t know exactly why they’re doing it.”

  After a few minutes, it was finally their turn to head through the gate of the city. Akai looked up at the large gate with huge iron reinforced wooden doors, currently propped open with a squad of guards watching over it.

  A number of men wearing surcoats over chainmail and padded clothes with kettle helmets stood, most leaning on spears and arming swords hanging at their hips. There was a woman in the same armor standing among them holding a ledger as she jotted down the names of people entering and leaving. Though, akai was a bit weirded out by her appearance. The woman had a head similar to a cat’s with fur, whiskers, even pointy ears on her head. She did have longer hair on her head kinda like a normal human’s but it was cut short. She reminded Akai of a brown tabby that lived in the village back home.

  He didn’t realize it was their turn and that he was staring. She spoke in a mostly normal voice, but had an odd accent. “Hey, kid, it’s rude to stare you know.”

  Akai blinked and said “Oh, I’m sorry.” He said quickly before saying “I’ve.. Never seen someone like you before.”

  “I can tell.” She said dryly in reply. Looking over the four of them, She looked at Lacy first.

  “You, what is your name?”

  Lacy almost flinched at being spoken to so directly by this beastwoman. She said a bit timidly, trying to pull the hood of her cloak to hide the burn scar still visible on her face. “My name is Lacy…”

  An awkward silence followed before the beastwoman said “...And your last name?”

  Lacy looked a bit worried at first, stuttering for a moment before Jennifer stepped in. Putting a hand on Lacy’s shoulder and confidently saying “Ryneveld.”

  Akai and Kidd looked up at Jennifer, but quickly caught on that she was telling a white lie. Lacy had never actually told any of them what her last name was, or if she had one. Akai had assumed she didn’t have one until now.

  “Sorry, my daughter’s quite shy. Please excuse her.” Jennifer said. An unamused “uh huh.” coming from the beastwoman in response.

  “My name is Jennifer Ryneveld, and this is my son Akai Ryneveld.” she said, gesturing at Akai. The beastwoman wrote in the book, Akai could see her hand was covered in fur too. “And the red head?” She asked.

  Kidd smiled and said “Kidd Fuller, son of Liam Fuller.”

  “Fuller, huh?” The beastwoman said as she wrote down the name in the ledger. She thought for a moment before saying “Oh, I remember him.” Before idly commenting “he still owes me twenty silver.” Then waving the group through.

  “Alright, go on in.” she said.

  Kidd looked confused after overhearing that comment but seeing Akai’s mother walking ahead, he quickly moved to keep up. The four of them heading into Elmswick city.

  Walking in, Akai and Lacy were met with sights they hadn’t seen before. So many people walking through the streets, most buildings were either two or even 3 stories tall. Down the road in the distance, they can even see an elevated section separated by another set of walls. And past that is a castle with a towering keep. Two flags flying from a pole at the very top of the tower, the lower flag is the city’s flag. The larger flag above is the flag of Legonia.