Who Are We, Again?

Part One - The Past; Chapter 1 ~ New Friends

Fire, everywhere. So much smoke it's nearly impossible to see. The stench of old magic hangs in the air, clinging to the rocks, the dead trees, my clothes. A man, lying on the ground at my feet. He's dying, his face gaunt and greyer than the landscape we find ourselves in. Despite his appearance, he radiates power.
He looks up at me, anger clear in his dark, sunken eyes. He struggles to stand, but an unknown force holds him down.
Was I doing that?
He opens his mouth, soundless words forming on thin, chapped lips. I narrow my eyes. What was he saying? I feel like I know. It's on the tip of my tongue.
I take a step forward, feeling compelled to do so, feeling a tug just under my ribs, and stumble towards this man, trying to hear him. Another step. Another one. My hand reaches out, seemingly beyond my control. The man's mouth is still moving. I can almost touch him, my hand close enough to his face to feel his breath on my palm. Just a bit further-
Then I was weightless as the floor rose to meet me. I closed my eyes, deciding that in the few seconds before my obvious and imminent death I should quickly and silently pray, apologising to the gods for stealing all those lollies, for not returning that library book, for cheating on that test that one time, for stealing those lollies again.
Suddenly, the world came to a crashing halt, and my breath was knocked right out of me. Strangely, I still didn't feel the ground. Slowly, I opened my eyes and struggled to find my bearings as I found myself floating about a foot from the floor. Then I remembered. I'm in my room. It was a dream. I'm ok. As I breathed a sigh of relief, sudden laughter erupted to my left.
"Honestly, Alexis. How many times have you fallen out of bed now? Was that the third time this week? The fourth? What happened? Was it a bad dweam? Aw, poor wittle baby-boy Alexis. If you can't handle the top bunk, maybe we should swap."
I felt my face start to redden, and I tried hard to give Eli an intimidating glare. This became slowly more difficult, however, as I found myself beginning to spin upside down.
"Shut up and put me down, Eli." I growled, and watched in slow-growing fear as my brother just shrugged, waved his hand with exaggerated flair and attempted to hide a smirk.
"Wait-!" Bam. It may have only been a foot, but a foot is a fair way to fall when you're landing on you're head. Shakily, I got myself up off the floor, my glare getting stronger as I grew more and more frustrated.
"You could have put me down gently, you-." I wheezed, but Eli interrupted.
"Careful. Mum'll hear you." There was a short, tense silence, before Eli continued.
"And, you know, I'm still only a mid-grade Mage. I might not have been able to put you down gently."
"Oh, so you can spin me upside down and catch me a metre off the ground, but you can't at least make sure my butt is facing the ground before you drop me?" I get a strange feeling of power, resting just above my stomach, and in a spurt of badly thought out decisions I start to curse "You bast-"
My mother burst into the room, a crazy look in her eye, and any power I was feeling evaporates. "Language, young boy! Nothing foul in my house!"
My brother rolled his eyes as I scowled at the floor, and the silence became immediately more strained than before.
"Yes, mother." We said together. Then, as the last dregs of confidence left me, I glanced at my brother quickly spurted out before he could stop me, "Eli dropped me on the floor!"
He looked up at me, barely managing to contain his annoyance. I'd really gone and put my foot in it this time. "Come on, I saved you! And I said I might not have been able to put you down gently!" He looked up at mum with an angelic expression, which melted away to fear as my mother gave Eli a look that was colder than many would've thought she was capable of wearing. "Lying is a sin, my son. Watch how you present yourself to the Gods. If you bring foulness upon this sanctuary you will be forced to leave it."
As mum was talking I slowly slid around her, hiding myself behind her back and away from both her sight and Eli's, so I missed the sudden cheerfully evil change of expression that must have flittered upon her face as she said, "So, as punishment, today you're both going to clean Grogl."
I quickly came back around to look at her face to check if she was joking. But mum never jokes. Making brief eye contact with my brother, we unconsciously formed a momentary truce as we attempted to fight this new enemy, and Eli and I spoke almost as one.
"Come on, mum! You have to admit that's a bit harsh!"
"You must be joking!"
"That thing is probably toxic by now!"
"Isn't it dead? I could've sworn it died, judging by its smell..."
You see, Grogl was our... pet. The term was used pretty loosely. Eli and I weren't even sure whether it was still alive, or if it was ever alive in the first place. I hadn't seen that thing move since, well, ever.
"The price for blasphemy is never too high," She said with a cruel look of satisfaction. "The poor thing hasn't been cleaned in at least a year-"
"or a decade-"
"NO INTERRUPTIONS! So get moving you two. You've got work to do." She walked briskly out of the room, stumbling slightly. I frowned and went to follow her, but Eli grabbed my arm. "You're doing it," he threatened, "or next time you fall I won't notice."
"What makes you think there will be a next time?" I asked defiantly. In response he just grinned maliciously and let go, stepping in front of me and going out the door. With a furious look and more angry mumbles and curses than was probably called for, I went to fill a bucket with soapy water.
~*~*~
"Oh my gods, he stinks." I groaned as I tried to lift the giant slimeball we call Grogl and drop him in the bucket of water. Without thinking, I plopped him in carelessly, and yelped when the water that sloshed over the edge drenched me in what was already turning into a lovely puke-green sludge.
"Come on," I muttered, almost incoherently. The muddy water was turning brown now, and I hadn't even started scrubbing yet.
I carried him in the bucket out to the front of the house, where there was grass, which meant less to clean up when the murky water got all over the place.
Exerting an amazing amount of will, I ripped up some clumps of grass and transmuted them into suitable gloves, before putting them on and plunging my hands into the water. I then proceeded to scrub with a disgusted vigour that would impress even Te'lir, God of Power and Ambition. Bubbles came from beneath the water, and Grogl quivered fiercely. It seemed he liked this just about as much as I did.
A boy came meandering down the street, not looking like he had anywhere in particular to go. As he passed me he stopped suddenly, backtracked and came over to see what I was doing.
"Hey." He said shyly.
"Hi." I growled in reply, sparing him a glance before turning back to the gruelling task at hand.
"What's that?" He asked, curiosity colouring his voice.
"It's a limopila." I say after a pause, a little bit embarrassed. They aren't the most interesting of creatures, and generally are the cheapest and nastiest pets a family could have.
Yet the moment I admitted what Grogl was,  this random boy's face lit up like a fire charm, and I was in so much shock I didn't fully register his exclamation of "No way! Is it really?"
It took me a few seconds to really respond. "Uh, yeah."
"I've always wanted one of those." He grinned, his eyes shining, and abruptly sat down next to me.
"Really?" Were we talking about the same creature? Maybe he hadn't really seen Grogl through the now green-grey water.
"Yeah! I've always loved Limopilas. They have such an interesting history and incredible biology and - sorry, you probably don't want to hear any of this. Sorry if I'm annoying you." He suddenly looked down, the glow in his eyes dimming a bit.
I was so stunned by this strange boy that it took me a moment to realise my silence might sound like I was agreeing.
"No no! Not at all! It was, um, it was actually nice to have someone find it interesting, rather than looking down on us for it." And for everything else, I thought bitterly.
"Do you have, um, a pet? Or something?"
He gave a non-committal shrug and continued to look at what he could see of Grogl through the sludgy mud-like water. "All we have is a wyvern."
If I had been drinking at that moment, I would have spat it all over this random stranger. However, as I didn't have a drink with me, and I was the magnificently awkward person that I am, I chocked on nothing but air, coughing at a surprising volume and violently sloshing water all over the place. It accidentally soaked the boys expensive-looking clothing, which he looked at with slight disgust before going back to the bucket.
"Wait, you have a wyvern?!" I asked incredulously.
"Yep, the lazy little sod." He paused for a sec, seemingly considering something, before asking, "Hey, can I help? I'm not really doing anything right now and I don't really have friends with, uh, limopilas."
This surprised me, since limopilas were a common cheap pet. But then I took in his appearance, how well groomed he was, how expensive his clothes looked, and I began to wonder whether he might be part of one of the elite families.
"You really want to help me wash this thing?" I asked, trying not to feel intimidated, and wondered why such a high-class kid would want to get his perfect clothes dirty helping someone like me.
There was a tense, awkward pause, followed by a tense, awkward "Well, yeah, if you want me to. It's ok if you don't," and in those few seconds he looked so insecure, and I managed to look past my upper-class stereotype and see a boy. A boy who just wanted a friend.
I couldn't keep the grin off my face. "Of course I want you to. What's your name?"
A slight hesitation, then "Jai." He gave me a small, comfortable smile, then turned to the bucket, now only half paying attention as he covered his own hands in grass gloves and put them in the water. I smiled as I watched. He's a Mage as well.
"Wow, he feels so... Weird. It is a guy, right? You can tell by the bumps over its eyes." I was busy looking at him, and I didn't register the question until he looked right at me.
"Uh, yeah." I replied dumbly, as if I actually knew. He really must've been into these things. Nobody generally cares whether it's a boy or a girl, much less care to know how to tell.
"Wicked," I heard him murmur under his breath.
"So, did you say you owned a wyvern?"
"What? Oh, yeah. She's not particularly impressive though. It's a surprise she can still fly, she's so fat."
"Well yeah, but, dude, a wyvern. You have a pet dragon!"
"A miniature one. And she only has two legs, so."
I stopped to think, before asking hesitantly, "Do you think one day I could come over and see it?"
He looked at me, surprised, before looking away with a slight blush. "Sure. I don't have many friends, so it'd be nice to have someone over. I'm sure my parents would be ok with it, considering I never really have anyone over."
I smile. "I don't really have many friends either. My mum cracked a while back and my brother kinda scares everyone, so..."
"What about your dad?"
I tried to pretend the question didn't bother me. "What about him?"
"What's he like?"
I couldn't keep the frustration off my face that time. "I don't know. He left shortly after I was born. They reckon it's what tipped mum over the edge." I struggle to keep the bitterness out of my voice.
"Oh." There was a tense silence, Jai worried that he may have just lost his first real friend, and in an effort to make up for it he mumbles, very quietly, "I'm sorry."
I looked up at him, his face a wild mix of emotion, and can't help the feeling of fondness that floods over me.
"It's fine. You didn't know. Besides, it's not like I miss him. I never met him in the first place." I attempted to give him a reassuring and carefree smile, but I think I just made him feel worse.
We lapsed again into a thick and uncomfortable silence, working to clean Grogl, until Eli came out grumbling. He didn't look up as he strode across the lawn.
"Alexis, I swear if you told mum that I wasn't helping clean that ball of worgle fat, I'm going to-" I didn't even have to look up to picture the astonishment he felt at that moment. I could imagine the surprise at finding me actually doing the work, and with what seemed to be a friend. However, his surprise didn't last longer than two seconds before a look of confusion and a speck of anger flittered across his face. He and Jai looked at each other for what looked like 10 seconds but felt like minutes, before Eli managed to string enough words together to exclaim, "who the fu-"
"Language!" My mother practically screamed, interrupting Eli mid-rant, before she, too, noticed Jai sitting beside me and came to an abrupt stop next to my brother.
"Alexis," she said warily, "who is that?". I rolled my eyes at my family's paranoia, slightly embarrassed and hoping my nonchalant appearance hid how anxious I was really feeling. I had hoped Jai wouldn't ever have to meet my family.
"This is my new friend, Jai. He actually likes this lump of slime that we were dumped with, and so he's helping me clean it, since Eli," I paused to glare meaningfully at my brother, "decided that he would blackmail me into doing it myself."
Throughout the whole exchange, Jai sat silently, blushing slightly, staring at the ground. His hands were still in the water, but he didn't move, probably fearing that one small disturbance could set them off screeching. I muffled a groan.
Eli made a quick recovery from my accusation. "Actually, dear brother, I was just coming out here to help now." He said this with obviously faked innocence. Mum ignored him anyway and continued to stare at Jai, who in turn squirmed uncomfortably under her piercing stare. Suddenly, mum spurted, "Introduce yourself."
Surprised at being addressed directly, it took Jai a while to respond. "Oh! Um, my name is Jai, and-"
"Jai who?" Mum interrupted coldly.
"Uh, Jai Bluefeather."
Mother gasped quietly. "A Bluefeather... I thought I recognised you..."
I turned to look at Jai more closely. Of course, how did I not recognise it; the dark features, the high cheekbones, the sunken eyes. The Bluefeathers were one of the richest families in the district, if not the entire state. They were basically royalty around here. I knew he was rich, but this bordered on ridiculousness. After a few seconds of silence, I ask timidly "Why didn't you say?" It wasn't meant to sound accusatory, but I felt that's how he took it. I saw his face fall, before he glared into the bucket, refusing to make eye contact.
"Why does my family matter so much?! I'm sick of people judging me on my social status. I get friends only because I'm rich, and I lose friends only because I'm rich. No one cares about me, it's always my money. It's not even mine!" He said defensively, still looking at the ground, but his expression had somehow gotten darker. I stared at him for a second, before I started to smile. "Well, I wanted to be your friend before I knew anything about you. That hasn't changed," I glance at my family, before looking back at Jai, "and I hope my crazy family doesn't stop you from wanting to be my friend either."
He looked up, but didn't say anything. I turned back to my family. "Mum, have you taken your pills? You're looking a little bit pale."
Mother gave a soft growl. "I have no need for those... things! Bah! Blasphemy, the lot of it. The only medicine I need is faith!" I sigh. "Eli, go give her the pills."
"I don't take orders from you, brat!" He snarled, but then he glanced at Jai, then at mum, before grunting begrudgingly. "I'll do it," he said, and I smiled with satisfaction. "But not because you told me too!" He added hurriedly. He then glanced at Jai again and said, "I'll do it because I care about mother." Taking her firmly by the arm, he dragged her inside.
More silence, but it was strangely comfortable now.
"Your brother seems like a dick." Jai stated bluntly.
I laughed, and whatever discomfort was left dissipated.
"Oh, he totally is. Like, super duperly totally. He didn't used to be, though. Once he went through the trials and found out who he was, he suddenly became all snooty and above everyone else."
"Really? Who was he?"
"One of the Pioneer Originals. Not the leader, you can tell by his personality. I can't remember which one it was though. I think it was the seventh one."
"Lukasa?"
"Yeah, that sounds about right."
"Dude, that's so cool!"
"That's one word for it. It explains why he always had a certain gift with magic."
I pause before asking, "Are you excited for when you turn 15? When you get to see if your Worthy, to find out who you were?"
"I guess. But I don't want it to affect who I am now. People change when they go through the trials. I don't want that to happen to me."
I nodded solemnly, then stared at Grogl, lost in thought. He was still quivering, but not as violently as before, and there were definitely less bubbles. I frowned.
"Hey, can limopilas breathe underwater?"
"Yeah, but not for long. Why?"
He turned to look at the ball of slime in the bucket, before asking "how long has it been?"
"Gotta be at least twenty minutes."
Silence. Then, "they can last for fifteen."
We shared a look, eyes widening.
"Crap!"

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