Race Of His Life

Chapter 11

"Okay, now we're lying down. So get on with the storytelling already!" Elsa complained.

After a long argument, Jack finally convinced Elsa that it would be much more comfortable if they laid down on the rocks while he explained. Of course, she had refused while blushing slightly, but Jack just stated that he wouldn't share his story unless both of them were comfortable. Left with no other choice, Elsa had sighed and had laid down, and both were looking up at the purple-ish orange sky before Elsa said the above sentence.

"Geez okay," Jack grumbled before he sighed and started his tale. "You wanted to know why I'm so obsessed with winning the race right?"

Elsa nodded.

"To tell you the truth, I was never interested in the Race of Rapidity, or about anyone's powers or whatever. I was just a young innocent boy -stop choking Snowflake- who lived in a small village and wanted to have fun and make others happy. But all of that changed when my father passed away when I was about ten years old. I could do nothing except watch as my mother struggled to look after my younger sister and me while working at the same time. 

"So once I hit my fifteenth birthday, I started working about three part-time jobs to help my mother. She didn't want me to work, but she understood that I had to, if we wanted to live comfortably. Our house was a lot more peaceful after that. We both worked all day but made sure to spend some time with each other and with my sister, Emma, who is ten years younger than me. I think she was sadder about my dad's death than mom and I because she was born just two months after dad's death.

"Anyways, life was perfect for the three of us until after my seventeenth birthday, when my mother was diagnosed with some disease. That was probably the biggest shocking news I had heard in my entire life. Emma and I tried our best to support our mom, but she was hospitalized a few months later. I had managed to get a job, but I couldn't pay all the bills with it. And soon enough, my mom passed away, a month after my eighteenth birthday. 

"Emma and I cried for days and nights, and I tried my best to manage a living for Emma and myself with the wages I received. But the worst part of it all was I knew that mom would have survived if she had received proper medical care. And the reason she couldn't get any help was that I couldn't get any money for her bills. I didn't work hard enough, I wasn't strong enough, and as a result, she was taken." Jack whispered the last part.

"Jack, no matter what you tell yourself, in the end, you know you couldn't have done much," Elsa spoke softly.

"Well, its too late to convince me otherwise," Jack commented dryly.

"So then, after a whole year of grieving, I was sick and tired of watching the people I love fade away right before my eyes. I wanted to be stronger and become more capable to help people who are close to me. And I was scared that I might lose Emma as well, the only person I have left. And that's when I decided that I wanted to be more powerful. I started working on my powers first of all because the only reason I used them was to play with children. My ice powers proved to be a total waste, so I focused on my wind powers instead."

No magical power in this world is a waste, Jack... Elsa thought to herself.

"On one such day when I was playing with my wind powers, I bumped into an old friend of my father's, who was practically family back when my dad was alive. We sat down and spoke for hours together, and he told me about the Race of Rapidity. Since I was born in a village, I didn't know much about it, except that it was a high-class competition which only rich people can take part in."

"Seriously?" Elsa snorted, "Then lemme tell you that I am actually a billionaire who joined the race because my pockets were overfilled."

"Haha, hilarious. Anyways, I was completely captivated as he told me about this race, and the only thing that my brain could come up with was that I can become more powerful and earn a lot of money at the same time. I asked him how I can enter the race, and he told me that there are different methods, but the most common one is to be part of a magic school where you compete with others and make your way to the Regionals. Obviously, I didn't have time to waste or the money to get myself an admission in any magic school. Moreover, I was already eighteen, so I asked him about any other way.