My eyes snap open and I swiftly sit up.

Today is the day! My first day in training!

I leap out of bed and run over to my closet to find my red cape. I throw it over my shoulders after I switch to my red training outfit and rush out the door. I pull the hood over my face, shadowing it, and enter through the door leading out to the training field.

When I get out there, I find Oscar and Boyd training with their wooden tools again and I find Papa on the other side with Pa. They turn towards me as I bolt towards them and they both smile as I stop in front of them.

I move my eyes between them, "Is Mama ready to train me yet?"

Pa laughs wholeheartedly at me, "Ho! Ho! Ho! Well! Someone is full of energy and anticipation this morning! She is still getting ready in her room, young Merric!"

I slide my eyes to Papa, "Then let's go get her then, Papa!"

Papa chuckles at me, "Alright then. Lead the way, boy,"

I swiftly nod and dash back towards the doorway leading inside. I cannot help but smile as I approach her door down the hall and I slide to a stop inside the doorway. I leap inside and I find Mama rummaging around inside her closet on the opposite wall. She is dressed in her training outfit but she is still searching through items.

What else would she need?

I place my fists on my hips and stand up straight, "I'm ready Mama!" I call out to her proudly, "I am ready for morning training!"

She laughs from inside the closet, "He's been excited about this all morning," Papa says from behind me, his deep voice pushes past me into the room.

She pokes her head out from within the closet, dropping everything she was holding, "Really? I am sure he has. Today is your first day, Merric. You ready?" She asks me.

I nod confidently and rush back out through the bedroom door. I have been ready for a long time, Mama. I have been excited to try this for a while now.

It is a strange feeling to know I have all this magical energy inside of me, but I cannot release it. I don't even fully understand how to use it. With my hands? How? When I see Mama use hers, all she does is raise her hands and it is there.

I stop in the practice field and look down at my palms. I raise my right hand in front of me and nothing happens. But when I try, nothing happens.

I spin around towards the doorway to find Mama and Papa entering the field. I excitedly watch them approach as I clench my fists in front of me. I cannot hold back the urge to bounce around, ready to transform this energy into dark magic. A large smile spreads across my face as I wait for Mama to tell me what to do, "Yay! I'm ready Mama!"

She laughs once again and scans the field. When her gaze finds me again, she smiles softly at me and begins to close the gap between us, "Get ready, boy," She says softly but sternly.

I narrow my gaze on hers as I position myself in front of her, trying to focus, "Ready," I respond softly. I notice Papa has positioned himself on the sidelines with Pa, waiting to watch my training. They say something to one another every now and then, while keeping their gazes locked onto me. When I look back at Mama, her soft purple eyes are glued to mine while she has one of her hands on her hip.

As she raises her other hand, those eyes harden slightly and she sternly watches me. She waits several moments, so I mimic her with my hand, the one on the same side as hers. She darkens her eyes and her dark magic orb encompasses her hand she has raised towards me. I focus on my hand, but the magic does nothing at first.

But why? Why does nothing happen?

I angrily glare at my hand and my dark magic flashes around my hand before disappearing again. I clench my other hand at my side, annoyed that I still don't understand. I was wanting to impress Mama today. Looks like that is a failure.

"Concentrate, Merric," She says softly, but sternly. When I look up at her, her eyes are narrowed at me. I slide my gaze back to my hand and I release my anger, focusing on my hand, "Focus your emotion through your arm," She says sharply.

My emotion?

After thinking about it for a moment, my eyes widen slightly before I focus back on what I am doing. Of course, that is how she does it.

I push my thoughts through my arm as I think about my hand. She didn't say which emotion. Which emotion?

I feel frustration wash over me as a dark orb materializes around my hand. I feel immense power around my hand suddenly and I slightly panic, as fear washes over me for a moment. Before I can recollect myself, the dark magic orb around my hand shoots away from me towards Mama. I feel my stomach drop as I watch it speed towards her.

She swiftly dodges it, with a small movement of her body to the side. She swipes her arm at the flying energy ball and she sends it flying upwards into the sky. It dissolves away into nothing.

Mama snaps her eyes down to mine and gives me her sharp look that strikes fear down my spine, "Focus boy!" She yells at me sharply. You can feel the venom drip on you from her words.

She's right. I almost hit her. I must try again.

I swiftly push away the fear and regain my focus onto my hand. I need do this. After a moment, another dark orb materializes around my hand. This time I don't think about anything else but pushing my emotion into my hand. And this time, I won't send anger in there.

When I feel confident to take my gaze away, I slide it up to Mama's. She slightly smiles, a flat line smile. This is not easy to focus on something while I must keep my emotion focused on something else.

"Good," She says slowly. She swiftly clenches her hand into a ball, takes a step back with her opposite foot and opens her palm again, out further than it was. A large dark shield spreads around her and seals her inside within a blink of my eye. Whoa.

The wind that shield caused blows Mama's red hair around her before falling gently back down around her shoulders. Her cape has also danced around her, curving around her back as the wind dies down. During that spell, Mama did not flinch at all and stood stagnant the entire time with her palm facing me.

I memorize the movements she made before focusing on my emotion once again. Now I must figure out how to force my emotions around me from my hand to create that shield. First, she moved the magic from her hand to the space around her while stepping backward. The rest was the shield forming.

I narrow my gaze on hers as she watches me from the other side of the shield. Then, without waiting anymore, I swiftly mimic Mama's moves, clenching my hand, taking a step back with my opposite foot, reopening my palm and then immediately focusing on the space surrounding me. To my surprise, the black energy ball around my hand disappears and materializes around me like Mama's did, sealing me into a full dark energy shield. I feel the energy radiate around me as the sounds immediately get cut off when the shield completes the seal.

This feeling is nothing I have felt before as I feel the dark energy tugging my raised hand from my palm in every direction towards the shield. I feel my cape fall back down around me, completely closing around my body except my raised arm.

"Good. Now... focus your emotion... and block these energy orbs I throw at you," Mama says to me, muffled through the dark energy shields. She swiftly drops her shield. I assume, she just stopped concentrating on the shield and it dissipates?

As soon as I try breaking my concentration, my shield drops as fast as hers did, starting with flickering of the surface then dissolving when I completely stop focusing onto it.

Now I must block energy from reaching me? Like using a smaller shield like the one she showed me or something?

I move my arms into a defensive position and raise my palm up again. As soon as I stop moving, she tosses a small dark orb towards me from her hand. It swiftly moves towards me in a slightly random pattern. When it gets close to me, I focus my emotion through my hand then out in front of it and a small shield fades in front of my palm. Just in time, the orb pushes against me and dissipates into the shield. Blocking energy like that takes more concentration than I expected. I felt the shield being shoved against me and I had to focus to push back.

When I find Mama's gaze again, she sends out another one. This one looks slightly more powerful as it swiftly barrels towards me at a quicker speed. As it gets near, I repeat the spell I did for the previous one and focus a small shield out in front of my palm. As the orb contacts my shield, it feels as though it slams against me and I feel my emotion shatter, taking the shield with it. It broke my concentration and now I feel vulnerable as I feel myself being pushed backwards from the force of Mama's energy orb. I fall backwards onto my bottom, roughly.

"Fortify your shield, boy," She says to me sternly.

Fortify? Oh, maybe she was testing me to see if I would use the same shield or if I would strengthen it when I saw that her orb looked more powerful. I should have caught onto that.

I look up to her and nod as I sluggishly pick myself up from the fall, "You are strong, Mama," I say. I wish I was strong like her.

She smiles at me, "You know a lot about this," I continue as I face towards her once I get back up on my feet.

Mama's eyes soften as she studies me, "You will get it soon enough,"

Suddenly, Mama stumbles around on her feet as she raises her hand up to her forehead. Papa rushes over to her side and catches her before she falls.

I feel my stomach churn as I helplessly watch Mama while I force myself over to them, "What's wrong, Mama?"

When I reach her side, she is looking up into Papa's gaze. She gives him a small smile but Papa's face is still laced with concern, spilling over the brim, "Are you alright, Hun?" Papa says, concern spilling from his lips.

He reaches his hand up to Mama's face and rests it on her cheek. I grasp Mama's arm as I watch them. Mama's soft gaze sparkles as she watches Papa for a moment, like she knows something he does not.

"I am fine, Hun. Do not worry. I have been meaning to tell you that we have another son on the way,"

Papa's face morphs into multiple emotions as he studies Mama's eyes. I think he is mixed with happiness and confusion or something.

Then my eyes widen as I think about what Mama just said. Wait. Another... son? Does she mean I have a baby brother?

Ah, memories are flooding back!

Welcome to part one of book 4! Now exclusively in Merric's POV! Hope you enjoy and remember this part from book 3, without Don and Ron of course!

SPOILERS: The character telling this story right now is Don! [ I mean, not spoilers! You knew that right! :) ]