"Lesson one, charms."

Darryl poured Hero some tea before sitting down and adjusting his robes.

"Do you know how I manage to not sweat underneath all these robes?"

Hero looked up from his tea before cocking his head and shrugging. Darryl smiled as he untied his robes and pulled it out to show Hero the inside of his robes. The younger boy leaned over and noticed the intricate patterns in circles littering the inside of Darryl's robes. He raised an eyebrow as he leaned in further to try and guess what it was made from. He was guessing chalk or dye, but both are pretty hard to get.

Darryl pointed to one red circle with a flame-like pattern inside of it.

"That's a cooling charm. It keeps me warm in the cold, and cool in the hot days."

Hero nodded before raising his head to meet Darryl's eyes as he asked, "What do you use to draw it?"

Darryl stood up abruptly to go to his makeshift desk made out of old planks and took a few big seashells. He went back to sit next to Hero and opened all of the shells before settling them in front of them on the ragged carpet. Hero looked at the array of powders in the shells, all different in colors and texture.

"It's not really about the material, because you can use any type of powder. What I have here are ashes, sawdust, wet sand and crushed berries."

The color changes are based on your... Power core."

Hero stared at him in a puzzled manner. Darryl sighed before he started to explain, "Power cores are little balls of flames that hover close to your soul. My power core is red, so the powder changes to red."

Hero asked, "What's my power core color? Can you even see them?"

"All born wizards can see them. I can see mine and I can see yours. Yours is a light blue shade, like your eyes perhaps, " he answered.

Darryl's eyes slid to Hero's giant power core hovering over his heart and it shook as if it heard him talk about it. Darryl swore it looked bigger than the previous day.

"Okay, how do you activate them? You said it wasn't because of the material."

"May I have your cloak? To demonstrate."

Hero hesitated for a minute but with Darryl's reassuring look, he handed over his brown cloak. Darryl set it out straight on the ragged carpet and turned it inside out. He got the shell of crushed berries, and instructed Hero to dip his finger in it. He showed the charm on the inside of his robes and told the younger boy to try and copy it on his own robes.

Darryl watched with a smile as the boy drew on the charm effortlessly. He had a steady hand, that was good. And maybe he had a small art skill. The crushed berries ink was still it's dark purple color so Hero raised his head for more instructions.

Darryl carefully took Hero's ink stained fingers and guided him to place his middle and pointer finger on one side of the charm, and his thumb in the opposite side.

"Now, jerk your fingers two to three inches left or right to activate the charm. But they must stay on the drawn line. If it ventures in or out, it won't work."

Hero bit his tongue as he focused on his finger movement. He counted himself down from five to one and jerked his fingers. The boy took a large intake of breath as he felt small jolts travel from his fingers to his wrist as the deep purple stain glowed a calm light shade of blue. When he leaned in closer, he saw tiny spots of white, like stars as they blinked at him.

Darryl just sat there, with wide eyes as he stared at the charm. Hero took his hand back, afraid he did something wrong and terrible. Darryl just slowly started chuckling.

"Look forward to comfort under the sun and in the winter because you just did something that takes a lot of effort to do. You just made the charm permanent instead of temporary."

Hero slowly slid his cape on, and he did feel a little cooler in the murky and humid underground. "How can you tell?"

Darryl beamed as he pulled Hero closer and hovered his finger over the charm. "You see, the white specks and the slight glowing can tell you. If it was temporary, it would be a dull blue and just blend in with no twinkle at all."

It was quiet as Hero shuffled to his knees to get a closer look on the inside of the cloak he put on. It was glowing lightly, he could see the blue glow reflect on his shirt. He smiled at Darryl and sat back down, ready to learn more.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○

Hero had never been so comfortable during his stay in the underground. He learnt a few more charms, his clothes had permanent cooling charms, instant cleaning charms and quality charms. Darryl added a long lasting sweet smelling potion to his clothes as a gift.

Next lesson was going to be on brewing and potions, then spell casting with wands, then spell casting without wands etc.

He casted a few charms on the tent he shares with Markus and his brother's belongings and clothes as well. The charms he activated were small so Markus couldn't spot them.

After five months, the battle plans were turning out well, and were almost completed. Markus got upgraded to being in charge of all the planning, and was Kaleb's right hand man. He was more taller than before, but Hero didn't mind. Hero trained regularly and all the running around he has been doing had given him great speed and strong legs. He had been able to roundhouse kick Kaleb down when he was getting too 'handsy'.

The scavenging and raiding group brought back guns that their Russian friends from above smuggled in and since Hero had used Ivan's gun often before, he had given a few lessons. He had tried nearly everything before with Ivan, from guns to swords and even flamethrowers.

He was known as a Weapons Expert, but he was even more well-known for emerging as one of the strongest as he beat the most buff men in the underground. With a little flirts here and there, he got Kaleb to put him in command of weaponry and combat together with two other men. He still looks the same, but his hair grew out to the point where he ties it up in a small ponytail.

His lessons with Darryl are really helping him out a lot. Even if he was strong, he could be a little clumsy at times so he learnt how to conceal bruises with Concealment Charms that Darryl invented. He used it to hide the marks scattering his back, chest and shoulders made by his father too.

He had recently mastered spell casting with a wand and was starting to excel spell casting without one. He was surprised when Darryl had a small collection of wands and one of birch with a spruce tip flew to his hand and 'chose' him. He didn't need it anymore, but he made a small holster and stitched it to the inside of his sleeve just in case.

Things were turning out well.

For now.

•••••???'s Perspective•••••

He's so happy. Too happy.

And I need to get rid of that brother of his, he's probably one of the main sources of happiness. And when the guilt and horror is a little too much, then I strike. And he will be my puppet, my fragile doll to shape, and I'll do what he will never dare do.

Such a little hero he is.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Both Markus and Hero were walking side be side quickly to Kaleb's tent. The man had ordered their presence, and said that the final battle plans were complete. Markus was a little excited, but Hero was uncertain.

They were basically a revolution.

A group of boys who escaped the clutches of Russians trying to train them for their own army, have developed a plan to take down the Russians and get Minecraftia on its own feet. And the fact that Hero and Markus were among the top ranks of that revolution, and played a big part in it... If all would fail, they would get punished the worst.

They reached Kaleb's tent and when they went in, Hero was a little surprised to see Darryl in there with Kaleb. Darryl was still looking down with his fingers on his chin, reading a map, when Kaleb stood from the makeshift chair and went to greet the brothers. He nodded to Markus, and gave a sweet smile to Hero. Markus sneered. Their leader laughed at his reaction and slid his hand to Hero's back, gently leading him to the table.

"First things first, I need Markus to stay with Darryl at the guard post tower to send messages through these communicating shit I found. Avian, the Russian up there didn't say what these were. And take note that Russian soldiers with a yellow bracelet are on our sides."

He held up a bracelet made with fine yellow threads. Hero ignored it and asked, "So Markus isn't going to fight?"

Kaleb nodded. Markus looked disappointed and pissed while his brother looked relieved. Markus caught his look and snapped, "What's so good about that?"

Even if Markus stood tall, Hero snapped his head up, glaring at his brother. "It's not safe for you to be out there surrounded by soldiers who can easily kill you with no sweat."

Markus narrowed his eyes distastefully and retorted, "Same goes for you! What if you get hurt? Or worse, killed!"

Hero's eyes softened a little as he said more gently, "It's a battle. A revolution. Of course I would get hurt."

He then smiled as he grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him close, standing on his tip toes to rest his chin on the younger's shoulder. He patted Markus on the back and whispered in his ear jokingly, "Besides, you're more brain than brawn."

Markus too wrapped his arms around his kin's back and whispered back, "You're more bones than muscles, y'know."

"Really?" He proved his brother wrong by squeezing his brother's shoulder, causing Markus to wince a little. He released and pulled away, punching him in the shoulder more gently this time. The two joined Darryl and Kaleb on the table, and the four discussed and finalized the plans four hours later.

It would happen in two days. The Minecraftian boys who did get caught and was training under Russia got the message and if all goes well, they would switch sides in battle and outnumber the Russians, letting them surrender the country over. Markus had done more than half of the planning, and he was basically the same rank of Kaleb. He would stay under cover with Darryl and send Hero and Kaleb messages through walkie-talkies Kaleb stole.

In two days' time, Hero and Kaleb would lead their undercover mini platoon to the surface and invade the village they resided under first, and would take out other villages nearby. They would slowly make their way to the North, where the Russian captain was, and take him out too. They wouldn't stop until the country was free.

And meanwhile, after the disappearance of his new friend, one particular spider was searching forests for the human he grew fond of. He wouldn't stop until he found his 'Princess' too.