Innocence, while it lasts, is to be enjoyed. But for our protagonist or I might say one of the many protagonists, this innocence was taken away when he was a mere sixteen years old. 

William, still in his exploring stages of teenage wasn’t particularly social. He spent most of his day helping his father in their farms and the rest skipping stones across a nearby river. Skipping stones across the river was something he preferred to do when he was bored and that seemed to be always.

Left alone by his parents, he had to do what he could to entertain himself, which included stone skipping and reading books.

William had olive skin and red hair, his eyes were brownish maroon. Unlike the locals around, who had blonde hair and pale skin along with blue eyes.

However, there was more to William than a simple farm-boy or a champion stone skipper; He knew something that very few people in the world knew: Magic. He learnt the three most basic spells from his father, whenever he was there.

A spell to push objects, a spell to summon fire and a spell to fly.

The third one wasn’t properly mastered by William. His aptitude in magic was unusual for his age.

For anyone who doesn’t have magic in their family, it takes twenty years to master it. He took one year to learn three spells. His father had assured him that they didn’t have any magic in their family lineage, he believed otherwise.

This was all about to change on a very fateful day.

On that fateful day while the sun set, William was sitting by a river skipping stones as he always did this time of the day. Nothing seemed very special while he had been skipping stones.

For a long time, he continued unassuming and unaware of what occurred behind his back. He then felt a presence of a man that stood behind him. Strangely silent and unmoving.

He turned around to face the man whose face looked like it was long and hardened by war. He was very intimidating. His figure was that of a giant compared to the scrawny frame of William.

“What is it that you want, good sir?” asked William politely.

The man grunted.

“Young boy” he said mockingly “you shouldn’t be so polite; it would get you nowhere”

He snapped his finger and that was the moment when William fainted.

When he came to his senses, the sky was dark. Yet there was a strange kind of light around him. It seemed unnaturally hot.

He stood up and returned to his senses to see great pillars of flame rising from his village engulfing every house that it had within it. Seeing the inferno of the chaotic flame, William panicked and ran into his village to see his parents who had returned that day after a long time.

Cries and wails sounded from the village. There seemed to be death in the air.

He pushed every last muscle in his legs to run as fast as he could. Chaos and panic seemed to rule the fire clad village. Some people grabbed their children out of fear others grabbed their valuables. Some yelled out in pain helplessly as they ran engulfed in flames.

William’s senses suddenly sharpened as he ran to search for his family, he had to see his family safe. He ran towards his house trying to understand the landmarks that marked the way to his house but it was very tough to do so.

Looking through each and every house and after spending a long time scrambling through his village, he found his house.

A board outside marked it, the board used to have written on it “the house of the warrior’s soul”. It was what William and his father had named their family.

Near the board, he saw an unsightly sight of his mother corpse. Her skin had been charred beyond repair, all of it, every last inch of it. It was something that would haunt William for years to come. Her chest did not rise or fall unlike the living, she was not moving.

He fell on his knees and started crying. His body shook at the sight of his mother. It scarred him deep.

“Mother” he said trying to shake her body.

Nothing happened. He kept crying silently feeling as if the world had shifted beneath his feet. He did not believe that it was his mother but her golden pendant and her brilliant blonde hair confirmed that it was her. He shook back and forth as if cradling himself to calmness.

The destructive fire that raged around him seemed to sooth him for some reason as if it was his element where he felt at home. Soon enough, he forgot about his mother and the situation that surrounded him as his brain walked into a trance of peace and tranquillity.

That was when somebody wrapped a black cloth around his face and dragged him away.