Worik woke up the next day his shirt and pants singed and darkened with ash. He was very confused and a bit drowsy from the previous day, but he was hoping that was just a nightmare. "Ugh... What a dream... W-wait... where am I?" He said slowly becoming aware that he was at the riverbank where he had ran the previous day. "Oh no... MOM! KIRA!" Worik ran as fast as he could across the shallow river and straight back to his home, which was now charred, but still standing. "MOM!" He cried half hoping that they had not been anywhere near here when the fire took their home. "KIRA!" he yelled into his burned out childhood home. He heard no reply from either of them so he walked through the empty doorway, knowing what he might find.
Worik searched for hours but found nothing, he sat on one of the few pieces of furniture left inside and thought about the night before. "Could I have really done that? Is it really my fault?" What his brother had told him earlier was starting to get to him and he couldn't help but start blaming himself. Getting up slowly, Worik looked out of the melted window at the barren fields of ash and charred trees that used to be a forest. Just before he looked back to the floor, Worik noticed something, something small in the distance. There was no way he could have seen it before with the towering trees blocking his view. "Is... Is that a castle, maybe a tower?" Worik thought for a while and than came to a realization, "THEY COULD HAVE GONE THERE!" He was excited to have hope again but knew it would take a long time to reach it. Worik walked to the basement, the floor miraculously preventing the fire from torching their food stores. After gathering up a potato sack and gathering supplies, he went back upstairs to look upon his destination once more. "Time to see what else is in this world." He said closing his eyes a tear rolling down his cheek, and maybe... I'll find them there."
Worik began to head in the direction of the structure he saw from his former house, not knowing what his path held. He got to the river he had fallen unconscious at and looked around to see if any animals were around, he saw nothing. "Time for some water," he said to himself as he took a flask off of his belt and dipped it into the stream. He heard a stick snap but didn't bother to look, seeing as the woods were barren and burned. He suddenly heard a noise he wasn't used to hearing, the whinny of a horse along with the sound of its hoofs moving it toward him. "What?" he said with a confused look on his face. Worik hid behind a knocked over tree and peeked out. The horse had been so fast its rider almost saw him, it looked like the only reason it stopped was to get a drink. Its rider looked to be a knight, his armor looked almost unused, with an emblem Worik couldn't quite make out, and even thought it only covered his face and chest, it looked formidable.
The knight stepped off of his horse letting it drink while he sat on a log nearby, looking around with what must have been curiosity. The knight took off the helmet he wore, "wow" Worik said in a whisper to himself, thinking that this mans eyes were of a color he had never seen. "I know that you are there..." The knight said, sounding something between bored and slightly irritated. "Please come out and save me the trouble." Worik wasn't sure what to do, or if he was talking to someone else, his mind began racing. "Eh-emm," Worik looked up, and seeing the knight, stood up and backed away quickly. "What on earth are you doing?" The knight asked with a confused look on his face. "I am Sebastian Feynor, and you are?"
Still petrified because of the knights sudden appearance he couldn't bring himself to say one word. "Did you live near here? Do you know how the fire started?" Sebastian asked sounding as concerned as his voice would allow. Worik looked into Sebastian's golden eyes and finally understood this man was not a danger. "I-I used to live here... I don't know what happened..." Worik said nervously still eying the knight to be sure he wasn't as dangerous as his parents had told him outsiders were. Sebastian nodded looking Worik over to make sure he wasn't hurt, than he noticed his hands. "What is your name?" Sebastian asked looking surprised, "Worik..." he replied weakly. "So... what happened to your hands? They seem different somehow, it's like something this kingdom hasn't seen in ages." Sebastian seemed very interested in how the boys hands were so pristine and un-touched by the soot that covered the res of him. Worik looked at his hands, "What?" he was both surprised and confused by how clean they were. Worik suddenly got a headache and remembered everything that happened the night before, all of it flooded back.
Worik's eyes shot open as he became aware he was being shaken. "Get back!" Worik yelled, backing away from Sebastian again. "What is it, a vision?" Sebastian was becoming concerned again. Worik began to calm down and told the knight everything that happened that night, how his father had passed on, how his brother had blamed everything on him, and how his hands began to glow and he wasn't sure why. Sebastian just looked at Worik after listening to his story in awe. "Boy, do you have any idea what you are? What you've just done?" Worik shock his head slowly, "I don't have any idea..." he said wondering why the knight hadn't laughed at him or called him a witch. "You are one of the few people in this world who would be able to do magic!" Sebastian sounded very excited about the whole thing. "Now, please, what is your name?" "It's Worik, just Worik." Sebastian nodded, "I was sent to check on the area, but no one expected..." he paused a moment looking at the boy, realizing what he had just gone through. "I should get you to a bed. There is a town not far from here, you can rest up there while I try to get a message to the kings court." Sebastian said feeling bad about how excited he must have sounded about the boys story. Worik nodded and Sebastian put him on the back of his horse as they rode parallel to the river, to a place Worik had never seen before.
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