FENRER

From sea to sea, coast to coast, there, underneath the hearth set alight by dragon fire, we shall find home. A place to rest our weary heads, with our tankards full. Haneka's words of the ocean. He sat on his bed and tried to understand what he had done wrong. Days after the dinner, where all the colours expanded and exploded with tension against his temples.

No, not colours.

Auras.

Priest Ituan checked on him from time to time and gave him lots of books — the biggest a tightly bound tome called Aurae Crystallis. Words dotted the page, but it never gave him pictures. He sat with it in his lap as other children played in the streets of Sungrove, protected by their stone walls and tucked against the rocky pillars of the hills. He set it to the side and frowned, and turned when someone entered his door. Mother, with her colourful aura of evening sunsets.

"Fenrer?" she asked with a light smile. "How are you feeling?"

He tried to search for his own colour, but it was lost to him. He turned his back on her and gazed out at the horizon of a rainbow. Happiness covered the cloud of tension. "I don't know," he whispered and swung his legs out. "I want to go outside and play, but Priest Ituan said we had to wait for Dad to get back."

"He should be here to check on you soon," Mother said and brushed her hand through his hair. "Can you try and describe what you're feeling right now?"

"I know what you're feeling." Fenrer eyed the head of his bed. "You don't like this. I did something wrong, right?" Her colours dragged him back to view it in its comforting light. "I don't know what I did."

Mother went quiet and confirmed his worst fears, until she shook her head. "There are a lot of things I do not enjoy about this situation, Fenrer, but it's not because of you. You only have a piece of the puzzle, it's still dangerous to assume," she reminded him, and he sank into his shoulders, and he winced when she wrapped her arm around him, but the thorns underneath the orange dug deeper with a confusing sense of rage. "It will never be because of you, my little wolf. You did nothing wrong."

Then why does everyone... look at me funny? I don't like it.

He sat there, but lifted his head at the deep canopy of green crawling through the outside of the hall. It pricked the air, but the massive shape turned the corner with a wide smile on his face. Dad, having to duck into his room with a fancy package in his hands with the Kolis family seal.

"Soren?" Mother asked and left his side, but her gaze trained on the package, and fire of irritation lit up the burrs.

"I need to have a talk with him," Dad said.

Mother sucked in her lips, but stomped past him without another word. It twirled on the edge of her departure, and Fenrer tugged his legs back onto his bed to cross them. Dad made a slow approach, creaking the floorboards underneath his boot. He took Mother's place, and eyed the book he left. "Have you read all of it?"

"I tried, but there's no pictures. I like pictures." Fenrer frowned at it, then turned to Dad. "An Aurus. Priest Ituan said that's what I was, but I don't... understand it. I thought... everyone could." Fenrer tucked his hands into his burning stomach. "It turns out no... not everyone can." He grabbed the book and opened it to the page he found himself stuck on. "Crystals. Crystal eyes. My eyes aren't made of crystal. I think I'd notice if I had a rock in my head." He pointed at them. "My eyes are eyeballs."

Dad hid a grin behind a large hand. "I think it's speaking metaphorically, son." He dropped his hand back into his lap with a heavy sigh which rocked the entire world. "An Aurus is... a magickae who can see the flow of the world tree. Aurus can see the truth others cannot; they can tread where none can go. Dreams. Thoughts. It is a power not all have — you cannot gain it from training. It is something you are inevitably born with." Dad inhaled. "You are, apparently, one of the most powerful ones Priest Ituan has ever witnessed."

Fenrer mused, "Does anyone else in our family have it?"

Dad shook his head.

Shades of uniqueness tore at his mind and formed into crystals, taught techniques to dull his own sense of the world. Emotions danced or writhed in torture, and stuck to the flow.

"And..." Dad's aura fled. "And, every Aurus has to wear one of these." He opened up the package to reveal a beautifully woven fabric of raven-black hues, stamped with the dragon flag of Haneka, with a lightning sheen across the trimming.

He took it into his hands, and tugged it around his forearm. He frowned at the insistent burrs against his skin. "It's itchy," he complained. "Do I have to wear it?"

"Yes."

Fenrer pinched a piece of the fabric. "Why do I have to wear it?"

His aura trembled, but his smile softened. "It's... the law."

"The law is to wear an itchy band?" He tested the amount of itchiness, but his skin curled with the movement he made.

Dad leaned back, then shook his head. "A long time ago there was an extremely powerful magickae. An Anima," he explained. "Where Aurus can see the pure flow, Anima can bring it to bear. This magickae who held the power of the Ancients, also could see the world from which they came — an Aurus. He went across the lands, gathering followers for some sort of purpose." Dad's hand rested against his back. "He used his power on them, against their will when those defied him. He nearly brought down the Elder Conclave about a hundred Turns past. For his deeds, the people feared the power he held. So..." He nodded at the band. "Out of the terror of what he brought, they deemed it a necessity to band Aurus — for the awareness and safety of others."

Fenrer slipped his finger into the band. "Do I have to...?"

"Yes."

He longed for the green burrs to soften as before. He stretched the band against his forearm. Against the woven fabric of storm clouds, full of static electricity. Opalescent flames glittered in the dragon's flames. He tested and adjusted until it was comfortable, and he rubbed it when it gave an irritating itch. He scowled, but dropped his arm back to his side.

Father ruffled his hair. "Just remember our words, Son."

"The dawn must always return," he echoed.

"I'm returning to Sivaport in the morn," Father told him with a smile, but his colours dimmed. "Will you keep watch over Sungrove for me?"

Fenrer scratched the band. "You said we'd go hunting today though."

"I promise, we will. Tomorrow. Me, you, and a special guest."

"A... special guest?"

"Yes!" Father beamed and the burrs wilted. "Now, go enjoy your day, but don't stray too far out of the walls. You nearly gave your mother a heart attack last time. When I come back, we'll train." Fenrer slid off his bed, but Dad's hand rested on his shoulder. Shadows filled the greens. "And, Fenrer? Forgive me."

"What for?"

Father released him. "For making you wear an itchy band."

Fenrer pouted and tugged. "They couldn't have made it soft?"

He chuckled. "I'll be sure to bring it up in the next council meeting." He brushed his hair, then nudged him out of his room. "Go on."

Through the expansive halls of the Sungrove estate, Aunt Ophel stood in one of the corridors, giving Nikos another scolding. Both their colours lashed out at each other, and Fenrer looked away to avoid the pain twisting its way into his eyes.

Sungrove. His home, a town full of many people. None of them but Priest Ituan wore a band. On one side of the cobbled road, a blacksmith armed some training Fighters. One of the housecarls bit a retort at one who held the grip of the sword wrong.

"Lord Soren!" another housecarl called. "We have to hurry back! The king isn't known for his boundless patience."

Fenrer blinked when Dad put a hand on his head. "He can stand to wait. I am here now, we may depart." He sent one last smile at him, and he craned his neck to take in the giant that was his father. Fenrer took a small step back when he mounted his horse and clicked his tongue.

Out into the forest. Out of view.

Fenrer curled his fingers, then stomped back to the estate for his plan in motion. When he comes back, I'll be ready! He ran back up the steps, past the stone wolven guardians on the platforms. He ducked past some of the housecarls, and avoided the corridor leading to his cousin's side of the family. Into the Lord quarters, he ducked into Father's office, with his map of the entirety of Haneka pinned to the wall and painted with rivers and words. He dragged his chair out of the way, waddling it to the side to reveal what Father hid.

A decorated warhammer, with the teeth of a wolf on the head. It swirled with sundrips down the handle, to the sun rising on the pommel. Fenrer grinned, then used all his might to nudge the desk for more room. It gave an inch, and it was enough. He rubbed his hands to prepare himself to be an unstoppable giant who tore trees out of the ground. He wrapped his fingers around the handle, and tugged.

It didn't budge.

Another tug, and he slipped onto his bottom.

I have the giant's blood. I am a giant. No auras will stop me.

He braced his knees, and used the back of the head to twist the handle onto his shoulder. It pressurized his shoulder and collarbone while he fought to tug it out. Come on, you're just a stupid stick with a piece of metal on the end! He dug his heels in and nudged the head along the ground, where it stuck into a loose floorboard. Back on the ground, the handle rested against his side. Irritation intensified the itch underneath his skin, but he sat there, unable to lift Father's weapon.

Maybe I'm just too hungry.

A new plan for sustenance, to give himself strength for the trials ahead.

He knew every little passage only he could fit in. Back to the main landing, he slipped into the cellar and ducked behind fermenting barrels. He pressed his hand against one of the smaller pieces of cobble wall, and it shifted to reveal another small passage. On his hands and knees, he scooted along the slope, and ducked around the passage which led to the shrine and ancestral tomb. It took a while, but his journey led him to the sweet smell of chocolate.

I'm sure Yulie won't mind if I take one for the road.

A grate blocked his route into the kitchens, but it was easy enough to move. Yulana, their head cook, stood at the ovens. Her colours reflected off her work, but he honed in on his real target sitting on the counters. Cookies, fresh out of said ovens.

Squishy, soft, chocolate cookies.

He kept to the shadows, closer to the tabletop and avoided Yulie when she set another platter down and turned to the next oven. He reached for a cookie, but dove back into the corner when Yulie turned. Back pressed against the island table, he took another peek of his quarry.

Yulie shuffled through the pantry.

He smiled, and went to gather his bounty.

"You truly are as bad as your lord father, Fenrer, but at least he can't try and squeeze his way through."

Fenrer froze at her voice, and turned as her brow creased in suspicion. "I was..." He snapped his hands behind his back. "You did a very good job on them! I was just admiring it!"

"I know I did a good job." Yulie folded her arms. "And they're not all for you. We're entertaining a guest for when your lord father returns from Sivaport."

"Not even..." Fenrer leaned forward and smiled further. "Not even just a little taste test? To make sure it's good for our guest?"

"You can try your luck," Yulie said with a scoff. "You are not the only Pyren to have tried swiping my hard work under my nose."

"You think I'd try my luck." Fenrer tipped his head and widened his eyes. "Over a cookie, Miss Yulana? I would never do that."

"Greater men have fallen head over heels for less," she said and never took her fire-spun amber eyes off him. "You will have some come dinner, Lord Pyren, and not before. Off you trot. You'll make a mess if you try any of your regular mischief. I don't need that in my kitchens."

The cookie called out to him with chocolate warmth, and Fenrer raised an eyebrow at one of the smoking ovens. "You better make sure that your kitchen doesn't catch fire, then."

Yulie gasped and bustled over to the oven. He swiped a cookie at her distraction, and then another. One more for the road. He shoved the last one into his mouth and dove back into the safety of the grate while Yulana spat words at the misbehaving rune oven. He closed it behind him and scooted as fast as he could back to the cellar and out into the open air from the outside basement stairway.

He finished his bounty in blissful silence, but frowned when Nikos led his friends out into the forest.

A part of him longed to follow their adventure, but Father's warning stuck to his mind.

Do not leave the walls of Sungrove. Watch over it for me.