Yes, I am a cruel writer. Hence the first chapter of another story.
Soran was walking from his house to the training grounds. Today was his seventh birthday which marked the beginning of his training to join the Vampire Annihilation Corp. Even at his young age, he knew the vampires and werewolves were eliminating humans and not humans eliminating vampires and werewolfs. A chilly gust of wind ripped through his cloak, and Soran grimaced. He mentally started noting the ‘family’ that lived in each house. Usually, it was one or more ladies with her children. The war was dragging all of life out of the world. He passed a breeding house and found himself at the village’s training ground where he would train till he was fifteen. There was one trainer. Clegane Fingerless was his name. It was easy to spot him drilling some of the older boys with his strange spotted grey hair and his fingerless left hand. It was said that he had lost his fingers to a werewolf in his first battle earning the name of fingerless. Soran sucked up his courage and strode onto the field, his undersized body struggling to get through the snow.
Clegane saw him approaching, and so did the other boys who immediately began to whisper among themselves. To Soran’s chagrin, Clegane laughed along with the boys when one made a comment about his frail body.
“Come on, kid. Why did you show up here? You know I’m going to assign you to technical corps. You’d probably go do something great and get remembered more than us poor grunts,” Clegane smirked and kneeled down to look him in the eyes.”
The grey lifeless eyes of Clegane conflicted with the grey eyes of Soran that flicked with blue and gold. Soran refused to back down. “I demand to be tested as an elemental.”
The crowd burst into laughter, Clegane included before he responded. “As if the god of fire, Oradan, would chose you to bear his fire, or that the goddess of ice, Idine, would let you wield ice.”
“There is one God.”
Clegane raised his hand to slap him before thinking better of it. “Fine, you may touch the testing stone. If anything, the gold and blue flecks in your eyes may provide you with the blessing of the gods. Follow me.”
Leading him inside the training building which doubled as Clegane’s house, he headed to the main hall which was also the main training area where the younger boys trained with no guidance at the moment. At the front of the room was the symbol of the elemental gods, earth, wind, fire, ice and lightning, with fire and ice at the center. Bellow them on a cushion was the elemental test rock. It was blue and orange, as the only elements humans could wield were fire and ice.
“Go on and touch it. I’m busy enough, as it is.”
Soran walked to the stone timidly and reached out slowly to touch it. Even as his fingertips touched the ball, he knew it. He was an elemental. When his hand fully rested on the stone ball, the ball came to life swirling with burning orange with a hint of ice in it.
“Well, I’ll be darned kid. You are an elemental and a duel wielder, not strong in your second element but still duel. Tomorrow, I’ll be escorting you from this forsaken village to the nearest city, Vale. Say your goodbyes. You won’t be back for a long time if ever.”
Soran stood there stunned. He really was an elemental, soon his eyes would be gold and blue because of his duel nature. He stumbled from the training area leaving stunned silence behind him. When he reached outside, he let loose a yell. He’d be training in a military city! He skipped all the way home as best as he could in the snow. He burst through the door of his house yelling. “I’m a duel Elemental!”
His older brother and only brother from the same father high fived him. “We’ll be famous!”
This mother, Dareen, hugged him her sad blue eyes almost smiling with her forced smile. “You’ll be wonderful, just like….” Her voice trailed off.
“Like who?” both of them asked quickly.
“Never mind, when do you leave Soran?”
“I leave tomorrow.”
“Of course, you would,” his mother responded grimly seeming much older than her twenty two years.
Soran walked over to the bed laid out on the floor where his five younger siblings slept, each of them from one of the different breeder men in town. All them fodder for the never ending war. The population had lowered so much in the first years of the war that the whole world had been restructured. To ensure that, there were enough children being born despite almost all the husbands being gone, breeder men had been instituted. They managed the village and helped out with all the heavy work in the village and were often skilled in a trade. They also made sure the women were constantly pregnant after with a three month wait time after having a baby. All women were ordered to start at thirteen, but for the first two years they could choose someone their own age, because boys did not go to war until fifteen.
Soran wondered if he would miss his younger siblings. Mark, his older brother, he knew he would miss. His small world was changing. These hard times didn’t allow one to stay a child very long. It was time for him to go help out on the fields. He sighed and stood taking in the dark moldy wood that made up their house. It was so cold. He switched his cloak for his work cloak and shivered as his hand passed the cold rusty metal of the hook. Hoping that today wouldn’t be a hard day of work, he braved the cold.