Auther note- <Text Here> = Non-verbal forms of communication.

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I have run into a problem. 

The roads are congested this morning, and I don’t want to wade through the crowds and get elbowed by all these people. So I’ve made the tactical decision to take some back roads. But this in itself was a mistake. 

I have never actually been on these back roads before. My keen sense of direction doesn’t help me if I’m lost in the first place. These roads zig-zag and just lead to houses and back entrances to shops. So I’m just blindly heading toward where the market should be when I turn a corner and four people are standing behind a shop.

One of them is wearing a snow-white cloak that covers their entire body. Unfortunately, I can’t see their face either as it is covered in a deep hood. The other three consist of two Wood Elf boys and a single Human boy. They all look to be a few years older than me and are just standing there, mumbling to each other, surrounding the cloaked person.

Not wanting to get involved in whatever was going on here, I turned on my heels on the gravel and began to walk away. 

But it seemed the Wood Elf boy with brown hair heard me and called out, “Hey, kid. What are you doing back here?” 

Kid? He was like three years older than me max.

“I’m going to the market,” I said as composed as possible.

I really don’t want to be involved with whatever is happening here.

“But the market is the other way…” the blonde Elf retorted while pointing behind me.

“Oh? Thank you, I guess I’m lost. I’ll just head back then. Sorry.”

Damn. Had I really let myself get turned around that much back here? I should have just taken the main road.

 I went to turn and walk away again when I heard the Human boy speak, “What are you two doing? Grab him, you idiots!” he barked at the Elves.

The two Elves looked conflicted for a moment as they approached me slowly. “Sorry kid, orders are orders,” the blonde one said.

What are you a marine? And what did I even do?

“Listen… I don’t know what is going on here, and as far as I am concerned, I saw nothing, okay?” I tried to diffuse the situation. This was getting out of hand quickly. But the two boys just kept creeping towards me.

I turned to start running when I heard the sound of rushing water, and I threw myself to the ground. A bolt of water smashed into the wooden wall behind me, splintering the wood. What the hell?

If that bolt hit me in the head, I might have died from that. Are these kids insane? Not only that, it wasn’t even the Elf that cast the spell at me but the Human boy. I didn’t take him for a mage. 

He looked like he had been working in the fields since he could hold a farming tool. He was damn big for an eight or nine-year-old kid. The two Elves looked back at their de facto leader, surprised. 

“Paul? What are you doing? He is just a kid!” the brown hair kid yelled.

I'm going to call him Idiot1.

“What? I was aiming for his legs. Besides, he saw us. Now stop messing around and just grab the kid!” Paul spat venomously. He looked a bit pale now, I guess that waterball took more out of him than I thought.

I have no idea what is happening here or what I even “saw.” I just wanted to walk away as if nothing happened, but no. This kid was definitely trying to hit me in the head with that spell, and it looked like they weren’t going to let me go. The two other kids would probably be able to catch me if I ran anyways and turning my back to another spell would be suicide.

“Why don’t you just come here? I promise I won’t let Paul hurt you too much, nothing that can’t be healed, okay?” the blonde hair Elf said while trying to coax me towards him. 

And this is Idiot2.

How merciful of you, Idiot2. I’ll make your pain swift.

I let them close in on me, and as soon as Idiot1 reached for me, I focused all my mana into my right arm and punched straight for his groin. He spat all over my face as I knocked the wind out of him. Idiot1 didn’t even have a chance to groan as he began writhing on the ground in agony.

“Wow, wait, how are you so-?” I cut Idiot2's sentence off with a swift mana-enhanced punch to the jaw. But he was ready and managed to enhance himself with mana in defense. 

Go figure. I was hoping only the Human could use mana.

He staggered back dazed, and I watched as Paul tried to aim another ball of water at me. Instead of dodging, I ran straight into Idiot2 and used him as a meat shield. His comrade, unable to stop his spell, now blasted Idiot2 in the back, knocking him to the ground.

I could see the Human boy was struggling to stand now. The idiot was going past his limits with magic and was about to get mana sickness from it. I didn’t feel bad for him. 

If that first waterball hit me in the head I would have been lucky to survive the impact. Besides, this could have been avoided if they had let me walk away. Idiots.

“Grab your comrades and leave,” I said coldly.

I even leaked a bit of my bloodlust in there to get the point across. I didn’t want the kid to die. Explaining that to Mom and Dad would be troublesome. And I don’t think the best son in the world went around killing kids either. So I was willing to be the bigger kid today.

I watched as Paul slowly raised Idiot1 who was still taking deep breaths on the ground and holding his stomach. Together they picked up Idiot2, who was still down from friendly fire, and they dragged him out of the alleyway, never removing their hateful gazes from me.

I decided today that kids are stupid. Or maybe just those kids. Also, for that Human kid to be able to use Novice level water magic already was impressive. Too bad he decided to use it against me. And his buddy wasn’t too shabby with his mana enhancements either. Although, I don’t feel all that great about beating up a bunch of kids… even if I’m technically younger than them… kind of… meh.

As I wondered how I was going to explain this all to my parents, I remembered the fourth person. I turned around and the person was just standing there, unmoving. They hadn’t said a single word either or even reacted to anything that just transpired in front of them. 

So I just stared at them. I stared at them in silence for a whole minute, waiting for them to say anything at all, but they just stood there like a statue made of snow. Well, this is getting awkward…

“Ummm… I am gonna go now? Sorry about them. I guess…” I tried to apologize, but they once again made no moves.

Okay then. 

Not wanting to be here any longer, I went to take my leave. I only managed a few steps before they grabbed my arm. Wow, they are strong.

They had a vice grip on my forearm, and I was sure they would snap my fragile little arm in half. I turned around to look at the person, and their hood fell off, revealing themselves. I took a sharp breath in and was surprised at what I saw. 

A pair of fox-like ember orange eyes gazed right into my face. The person was a female Beastmen… She looked like an arctic fox mixed with an Elf. Her hair was snow-white, even the eyelashes. The Beastmen’s skin was almost as white as her hair. Even the cloak matched. She just stood there holding onto my arm, not speaking.

I winced in pain as she wouldn’t lessen her grip, “Could you please let go of me?” I asked.

It took her a few seconds, and she jerked her hand away from me. She looked at me apologetically but remained silent. We just stood there and continued to stare at each other. Finally, she gave me a “Wait a second” gesture with her finger and rummaged around in her satchel. 

She pulled out a comically large stone tablet. The tablet was utterly black and shined like obsidian. She sat down on the ground and hid behind the tablet. I just stood there waiting as this fox girl was doing something with the large stone tablet. After a few seconds, she turned the tablet towards me, and on its black surface were light blue, glowing symbols. 

It was Elvish, and I began to read what she had written. <Hi.> Was all the tablet said.

She just had the tablet in her lap and was peering over the top of it. I pressed my finger against the tablet and tried to write a letter, but nothing happened. I gave her my best look of confusion, and she grabbed my finger and glided it across the tablet. I could feel the warmth on her fingertips as she focused mana into them. So I replicated the action and focused my mana into my fingertips. Now I was able to write on the tablet. 

How interesting, you could write on this stone tablet with just a bit of mana. It felt like it was sucking the mana straight from my fingertip. 

<Hello?> I wrote back to her

She quickly flipped the tablet back to herself, and I could see her smile brightly as she began to swipe her fingers across the tablet furiously. <Hi! Thank you for helping me. Those boys were trying to take my satchel.>

 I gave a nod of understanding and wrote back, <It’s okay. They attacked me first so it was no big deal. Bye then.>

Thinking I was done here, I stood up to walk away, but she quickly grabbed my leg and looked afraid that I was leaving. I had no idea what was going on and why she wanted me to stay so bad, so I stopped and looked down at her. 

She began swiping away again on the tablet and turned it towards me once more. <Will you be my friend?> She wrote to me.

Huh? This is unexpected.

I was surprised and sat there crouched as I read the letters on the stone. She flipped it back over to herself and began to write some more. <Kids can’t read and write very well, so it’s hard for me to talk to them. And they all make fun of me because I can’t hear them. So I don’t have any friends.> She flipped the tablet back to me as I read this. I could see the sadness in her eyes as I stared into them.

So, she’s deaf? A deaf Beastmen must be extremely rare. Not only that, she must have been born that way since any injury to her ears could just be healed with magic. 

I couldn’t imagine being deaf, especially since Beastmen were supposed to have hearing that was just as good as Elves. It must be hard for her. And I had seen firsthand just how stupid kids could be. 

I began to write back to her, <Okay. Only on one condition.>

She quickly read my response and looked up at me. She seemed surprised and kept rereading the tablet. I could see tears well up in her eyes when she suddenly dropped the tablet and lunged at me. She had me in a bear hug before I could even react. 

The Beastmen girl began to sob while squeezing the life out of me. She didn’t even know what I was going to ask of her. How the hell was she getting bullied? I’m pretty sure she could just squeeze kids to death if they messed with her.

I let her have her moment until she finally calmed down and grabbed the tablet again. <I’ll do anything!> 

Feeling a bit light-headed now, I wrote back, <You are going to have to learn sign language.> 

<What is sign language?>

<It’s a language spoken with hand gestures.>

I didn’t have any friends myself, and I had never had anyone want to be friends with me before. I was friends with Nyx… but she isn’t here anymore. And I could understand her plight of being a pariah. I knew all too well what it was like for everyone around you to not understand or outright dislike you for something you had no control over. 

So I think I was actually kind of happy that this girl wanted to be friends with me. However, communicating using this tablet was going to be tedious. Also, lugging this dang thing around all day must be awful for her. However, I knew sign language from my previous life, so I could just teach her that. It would be way easier and more practical than using this thing.

<Can you teach me?> she asked.

<Of course, I’ll teach you. What is your name, by the way?> I asked.

<Cerila. What is yours?>

<Kaladin. It’s nice to meet you, Cerila.>

And today, somehow, I went from getting lost on my way to the market, to fighting some random punk kids, to meeting my first new friend Cerila. 

Thanks, Dad.