Heroes of Xevida

Chapter 1

A tiny fire lit up in the Lurewood forest near the small village of Berun. Some may think it's a will-o'-the-wisp, slowly burning, guiding the living into the forest straight to death and some may think it's a natural phenomenon due to the magic properties of the swamps. This time though it was neither a monster nor of natural origin, it was a boy who wasn't even fourteen years of age unintentionally committing arson in a dry forest.

The fire ball grew in the boy's hand to the size of a plate, sizzling and distorting the air around it, until the boy discharged the spell into his surroundings. His bright red hair flew around as the fireball hit the nearest tree trunk with a loud bang, a confident, arrogant smile clearly visible on the boy's face. The tree trunk burned faster and faster, got consumed by the flames and quickly turned to ash and charcoal.

Though the fire didn't stop there and the boy who slowly realized this very fact lost his smile. "Hold up, why isn't it stopping?", he asked, his voice quivering. He thought the fire would stop as soon as it finished feasting on the targeted wood, yet he forgot that a forest doesn't contain only one tree. Slowly the boy retreated backwards, eyes focused solely on the fire he created. His senses screamed at him to run, but his focus was on the sea of red and yellow spreading around him.

Backing off even more the boy toppled over a root sticking out of the ground, leading to him landing straight in the muddy marshlands. The young fire mage crawled backwards, away from the enclosing fire, until he heard loud voices calling for water mages. Tears started to pool in his eyes, the boy seriously thought he was about to die by his very own magic. The people drew closer, some where already screaming for the water mages to step to the front and put out the fire.

He then realized he'd be in big trouble if the villagers found him near the source of fire. Finding a young fire mage near a burning forest is incriminating in itself. More afraid of the others than of the fire he jumped up and ran away, deeper into the Lurewood forest.

As he heard the fire sizzle from afar as water hit the heated up swamp the boy turned around. Someone once told him that fires in marshlands can burn for years, though he didn't believe that at first. But now, after seeing the trouble the water mages went through to put out the fire, the boy was quite convinced he hadn't been lied to.

Just as he wanted to turn around he heard someone clear their throat, making his head zip around so fast that he only saw black dots for a few seconds. When he regained his vision the boy realized that the person in front of him was none other than his older brother, who gave him a stern look. The disapproval was clearly visible on the older brother's face, as he opened his mouth to lecture his younger brother.

"Before you lecture me, remember that you're less than five minutes older than me.", the younger brother said, pursing his lips, "So stop acting like I'm a fucking disappointment to you, when I'm only a disappointment to our parents. Also, why are you even here?" The younger brother stared straight at the older one in defiance. Indeed, he was at fault and he was well aware of that, yet all the others always tried to lecture him over these matters, as if he was too stupid to realize his shortcomings.

"Aiden, I don't care how many minutes you're younger than me. You were born after me, therefore you are my younger brother and I have the duties of your older brother. By the way, I just tagged along, because I assumed you'd get in trouble.", the older one of the two said, letting out a sigh as he massaged the bridge of his nose, "And considering how you constantly create trouble I have to collect you and bring you back home.

You nearly burned the forest down, for goodness sake! What would've happened if the mages weren't fast enough to extinguish your flames? Heck, what if they weren't even in the vicinity!? Ever thought about that? Aiden, you can't be that irresponsible!" The older one's voice grew louder and louder as Aiden ducked deeper down and avoided his brother's eyes.