Some people strive to be greater. They work until their backs break, pushing themselves to their limits to achieve something out of their reach. Those people know the hardships of life, and that success isn\u2019t easy. But for other people, they will never know that struggle. For those people, they have everything set out in front of them within arms reach. People born with silver spoons in their mouths, and fire in their fingertips. People like the Pyros. Kid\u2019s like Jared.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cAim for the chest! Quick before he kills you!\u201d a stern and angry voice shouted from across the sidelines. A scrawny ginger-haired boy flinched and brought his hand back getting ready to throw. A small ball of flames held in his hand as he used the powers given to him by his bloodline to make flames from nothing. He readied himself and swung his hand into the front of him, releasing the ball. The flames exploded by the impact of another, much large flaming object. The impact was so close, the boy was forced back and fell backward to the ground. He sat there and looked ahead of him to the other side of the training field. Beyond the flames eating away at the grass, he saw another boy of the same age. This other boy who shared the same blood, and hair. This other boy is known as Jared.<\/p>\n[aesop_character img=”http:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2018-04-12-at-9.28.57-AM.png” name=”Jared Pyro” caption=”Here’s your protagonist. The Cowardly Lion, the Punching bag, the Flame alchemistake, and the friendly bartender. Be kind, he had a gentle soul, until he sold it.” align=”left” width=”400px” force_circle=”off”]\n\n\n
Jared laughed at his smaller cousins lame attempt at an attack. They\u2019d been training and fighting each other for years, and Jared wondered how his cousin Bullet still had any hopes to beat him.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cStart taking your dad\u2019s advice Bullet or you\u2019ll end up burnt to a crisp!\u201d Jared shouted, and created another ball of flames in his hands, ready for another round. Jared\u2019s uncle stepped onto the field.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s enough for today. Bullet get yourself off the damn ground. Don\u2019t stay down in a fight unless you\u2019re dead. Go back to the town and to your studies. Jared, come with me.\u201d Jared\u2019s uncle scolded Bullet, as is always did after training. His uncle was a General in the Guardian military, a rank given only to the strongest most powerful guardians. General Pyro was a man of pride and was determined to get his only son Bullet or Jared, the son of his late brother to someday take over his spot. Jared showed excellent potential in both his strength and elemental abilities. His son, however, didn\u2019t look so promising.<\/p>\n\n
Scuffed up and covered in soot, Bullet made his way back to the town, the looming feeling of failure resting on his shoulders.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n
(switches to first person, Jared\u2019s point of view, to test which POV I prefer)<\/p>\n\n
I was always so delighted when my uncle would praise me for my hard work during training. I always let his words fuel my ego. I really thought I was the toughest back then. Everything\u2019s easier on the training field, especially when your opponent is weaker than you. Poor Bullet didn\u2019t stand a chance, and there were many nights I\u2019d hear his father lecturing him in the study. It\u2019s crazy how times change. If anyone knew how pathetic and cowardly Bullet was, they\u2019d all laugh in his face. He\u2019d become the laughing stock of this bar.<\/p>\n\n
We went for a walk, my uncle and me. I remember watching the breeze shift the branches of the pine, and noticing how they creaked softly as their trunks swayed. My uncle spot but never looked at me. He kept his face forward and chin up.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI think you\u2019re ready for the academy,\u201d I remember him saying, and I got that feeling in the pit of my stomach when something doesn\u2019t seem right. No words came from my mouth for a long time. Nothing scared me more of going to the academy, than saying no to my uncle. Chewing the inside of my cheek, I mustered up the courage and spoke in the softest voice I could. My voice might have squeaked a little from both puberty and fear.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
If I was a bit wiser, I would have known to run at that moment, but no. My uncles head turned and he gave me this monstrous gaze as if I insulted his mother. How he didn\u2019t hit me is beyond me, because nothing ever seemed to stop him before.<\/p>\n\n
Something did change for me at that moment though. I spoke up against my uncle for the first time and went against his wishes. That was something I was too scared to do before, but I did, and I survived. Let\u2019s say I started to get cocky, and from then on I started to speak up more frequently. Whether it was over the academy or something small like using the proper silverware at dinner, I would start these arguments. We bickered constantly, like crows. It was mostly verbal, but I can\u2019t say I didn\u2019t throw a chair or two to be dramatic and get my uncle fuming. It was a great feeling. Having that power over him to make him break that poker-face he wore so often. My aunt was powerless and had to endure our fights. Bullet would hide in his room to avoid us.<\/p>\n\n
The fun that came with picking fights quickly faded as soon as it came, and I really started to detest that man. It became a chore to have to interact with any of my family because they all felt I was more troublesome than I was worth. That\u2019s when my plan started to form. I was going to run away(how original I know).<\/p>\n[aesop_timeline_stop num=”Day One” title=”Day One”]\n\n\n\n
I planned it for\u2026 a week? Maybe ten days? First I needed to get out of my house without being caught. Then I had to sneak past the many homes of the people in our town. The biggest challenge was getting past the shields. The shields covered the entire perimeter of the town, in a dome-like shape. The shield was created to keep out weaker monsters like werewolves, goblins, fairies. Someone like me or a human can pass as they please. The issue is my uncle\u2019s ability to sense anything entering or exiting the shields.<\/p>\n\n
Nothing a little sleep potion couldn\u2019t help me with. I would describe the escape, but honestly, it was really underwhelming, and I want to get to the good bits, bare with me they\u2019re coming.<\/p>\n\n
So there I am, outside the shield on my own for the first time. To my right is open plains leading towards the river, and beyond that, more flatlands as far as the eye can see. To my left, woods. Not just any woods, however, these are Outsider woods. The perfect hunting grounds for ghouls and monsters alike. As kids we were always told never to enter the dense woods or vampires would snatch us right up into the trees and eat out our eyes. But when I looked past the trunks of the trees, and beyond their hanging branches, I saw no difference within those woods as I did in the woods within my town. Walking out in the open would heighten my chances of being spotted by my family. The trees at this moment were my safe zone, and into their darkness, I went.<\/p>\n\n
The second I stepped past the first few trees, I could feel a shift in the air, but nothing strange enough to scare me off. This haunting presence looms over you with every step, and no matter what, you can\u2019t shake that feeling that someone\u2019s watching you. It must have been a good twenty minutes of walking in the dark, hearing an occasional howl or cry far off before I encountered my first outsider. Before I even saw this ugly bastard, my lungs filled with this heavy air that smelt oddly of roasted ham at first, then sulfur. Put off by the stench, I glanced around for the source and my eyes meet with two small blue eyes no more than thirty feet from me. At that moment I froze, I had no Idea what I found, or in this case, what found me. This beast of an outsider had the head of a man with large horns coming around its head, attached to this long hairy snake-like neck leading to the body of a bull. I\u2019ve seen a lot of ugly outsiders in my life, but to this day nobody comes close to that beast.<\/p>\n\n
At this point, I feel my eyes getting heavy, and I\u2019m soon telling myself that I can\u2019t close my eyes. I can\u2019t let sleep take me. This isn\u2019t right. So before I get knocked out by the breath of the beast, which I later learned is called a Catoblepas, and took the liberty of nicknaming Cato, my hands create flames. I was a tough kid, according to my training. However, the moment I got my powers to activate, I felt this bone-cracking impact in my abdomen. Before I knew it I had flown back and crashed into the trunk of the tree behind me, breath completely depleted from my lungs. After taking that hit from Cato, I couldn\u2019t fight the drowsiness that his breath caused me. Keeping my eyes open wasn\u2019t my worry anymore. My worry was that I was going to die. Not even a half hour of freedom from my old life, and I\u2019m going to die. That beast had no mercy, and his ugly face moved its way towards my limp body ready to eat me up like a snake. And that\u2019s the end of my story. I soon died after entering into Cato\u2019s esophagus, luckily dying while in a deep sleep\u2026<\/p>\n\n
I wish. I\u2019m not that lucky. No, I didn\u2019t die that soon. Someone had other plans for me.<\/p>\n\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n\n
(Switching back to third person still figuring out where I want to go with the POV)<\/p>\n\n
Jared felt the hot breath of the monster on his face, and the feeling of his lungs crying for air as they were forced to take in the poison. Jared\u2019s eyes closed, unable to fight off the sleep much longer. He fell further and further into this peaceful state, not quite the death he imagined.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThat one\u2019s mine onion breath,\u201d was the last thing Jared heard before sleep took him.<\/p>\n\n
When Jared came to he was being carried like a sack of meat over someone\u2019s shoulder. A groan came out of him as all the pain in his back and abdomen started to come back. The person carrying him stopped walking. Jared looked over to see his capturer. He was met with the orange eyes of a dark-haired man. The man looked a bit rugged with a five o\u2019clock shadow.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cUh\u2026 hey?\u201d a small croak of a sentence came from Jared\u2019s mouth, and he realized how thirsty he was. The man immediately put down the kid when he saw he was awake. When Jared was steady on his feet the man start then began to walk away, no longer wanting the responsibility. With further inspection, Jared noticed the man had blood all over the sleeves of his dark brown leather jacket, and flecks of blood on other parts of his clothing. Glancing down at himself, he saw that he too had blood on him. \u201cWhat happened? Is this mine?\u201d he wondered to himself.<\/p>\n\n
The stranger kept walking but Jared wasn\u2019t about to let him go that easily without answers.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhere are you going?\u2026.What happened last night?\u2026. Who are you\u2026\u201d every one of his questions was unanswered, and Jared began to walk after the man,\u201dHEY! Answer me! Who are you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The man stopped yet again in his tracks, and kept his back to the kid,\u201dIf you don\u2019t shut up, I will find another catoblepas to eat you. Keep up or I\u2019m leaving you behind, we need to find shelter until night.\u201d After saying what he had to, the man continued his walking again. Jared wasn\u2019t sure what to make up this man. He didn\u2019t think humans lived in these woods. The man did save him when he very well could have mugged or killed him while he was passed out. The fact that this man seemed so mysterious was enough to get Jared to make up his mind and follow.<\/p>\n\n
They walked in silence for a long, awkward amount of time. Jared spent this time observing the stranger from behind. He looked pretty normal, other than the bloodstains. He also noticed the man had a belt equip with many small throwing knives. The man needs a weapon of some sort to survive in here, so it wasn\u2019t off-putting, but how could those tiny knives take down that beast from last night?<\/p>\n\n
The man finally began to speak,\u201dDelta.\u201d<\/p>\n[aesop_character img=”http:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2018-04-12-at-9.29.17-AM.png” name=”Delta Phoenix” caption=”Please welcome the legend himself. Death’s Demon dog, the Heartless Soul Taker, the drunkard at his own bar. It’s Delta! Hold your applause, you’ll only annoy him. Time for him to ruin yet another persons life, so grab the popcorn.” align=”left” width=”400px” force_circle=”off”]\n\n
\u201cIs\u2026 that your name?\u201d Jared responded after the man stated that word so randomly.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWho are you?\u201d the man asked.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cMy names Jared\u2026 Pyro\u2026 The Generals nephew.\u201d After Jared said that phrase Delta looked back at him, and the faintest smirk made its way to the corner of his lips. Jared didn\u2019t notice.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cNo shit. You have that royal blood in your veins. I wouldn\u2019t tell that to too many people. Guardian souls are worth a good deal around here. From now on you\u2019re a human, nothing more. I\u2019ll be sure you\u2019re souls kept in good hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
(First person)<\/p>\n
Delta told me more about the monsters, which he referred to as outsiders because they preferred that term. Outsiders are a mix of people, animals, and creatures alike that were cast out by guardians centuries ago for being a threat to humanity. They don\u2019t rely on money as currency, although I later learned Delta was loaded with coins. Instead, they trade objects, labor, weapons, alcohol, an arm, and leg, really just about anything. I talked a lot about my training and my town. He seemed very interested in it, especially when I talked about my escape. Delta knew about my town, but never went into it. He said he didn\u2019t like being around crowds of people.<\/p>\n\n
When I asked him about himself he sort of closed up or stayed vague. What I learned about him was that he was retired, which was very odd because he didn\u2019t look a day over thirty. Now he free-lanced, doing odd jobs here and there. He had a little sister named Echo who was waiting for him at their shelter in another section of the forest. Any memory of the rest of his family was gone along with the memory of his childhood, but it didn\u2019t seem to bother him.<\/p>\n\n
I felt bad for the guy. He seemed very lost in this world, and for some reason, he was dropped into the outsider world. It made me feel a little guilty. I have everything this man doesn\u2019t a home, a family, powers, worth, and yet I walked away from it. Delta knew this, but he never called me stupid, he didn\u2019t seem jealous, to him I was just some guy. He didn\u2019t even see me as a kid I don\u2019t think.<\/p>\n[aesop_timeline_stop num=”One Month” title=”One Month”]\n
After that day I traveled with him all over the woods. He taught me how to fight in a different way than what my uncle taught me. I experienced so many things with that man. I was twelve and here I was following this guy and barely knew, around a land I knew nearly nothing about. Every few weeks Delta would drop me off somewhere safe, and leave for a day or two, but never discussed why. It happened so rarely that I didn\u2019t think about it too much. He brought me out drinking to these shady run down pubs, introduced me to plenty of older women, and got me caught up in a few good bar fights. We went on like this for months, traveling, drinking, sex, fighting, over and over to different locations. During those exciting months, I still knew very little about the man I was accompanying. At this point, I was having too much fun to even think about home. The outsider life was so much more carefree than guardians structured way of living. It wasn\u2019t until I met Delta\u2019s sister Echo that I started to learn more about him.<\/p>\n\n
That night that we arrived at his \u201chome\u201d if you could call it that. He set up a camp in a cave that was well hidden behind branches. I wasn\u2019t too thrilled to sleep in a cave since we were sleeping in cabins and bars for eight months now. Out of the branches came this girl, who at the time must have been sixteen or so. Delta\u2019s a very normal looking guy, so when I saw his sister, I was understandably thrown off. This girl had brown cat-like ears sticking out of her black hair. Her eyes were big and white, no iris or pupil, just white. Her skin was covered in this short tan fur, and she had a tail swishing behind her. She looked like an Egyptian goddess having a face of a feline but the body and clothes of a human. At that moment I was beyond confused about how this cat-thing could be related to a human.<\/p>\n\n
Delta wasn\u2019t good at introductions and dropped me off and said he\u2019d be back in a few weeks. So I was left with Catgirl in the middle of the woods, having no idea what to do. The worst part was that there was no booze or sexy women. There was only Catgirl. Echo really wasn\u2019t bad. She was a very talkative and playful girl who acted a little young for her age. It\u2019s like she never really grew up, and now that she had a friend around her age, she just wanted to play. It was like I had an older sister. She was an outsider though, and you could tell. Although she was very happy and cheery with me, some of the things she\u2019d say or do made me remember she\u2019s not so innocent. A pastime of hers was snatching birds and cutting off their feathers and torturing them because she claimed she \u201cliked to hear them sing\u201d. Echo was a messed up kid, I don\u2019t deny that. However, before sunrise when we were going to bed, we had many deep conversations.<\/p>\n\n
Echo explained to me how since she was very young, Delta would leave her in this tiny cave for days at a time while he would go do work. As she got older, days turned into weeks and weeks into months. I had no idea until then that Echo was all alone for every second me and Delta were out having fun. Even though Delta would leave her, she still loved him, but it was probably stockholm syndrome. She told me she was adopted by Delta, and she was the one who referred to them as siblings first. That explained a lot. Echo too didn\u2019t have any memories of her real family. I was so intrigued by these two, and their relationship. I wanted to know what happened to her parents, and how Delta got possession of her. Surely she wasn\u2019t as dumb as me to run away. Within a few weeks, like he had said, Delta returned, dropped off some supplies for Echo, and took me with him to our next adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n
After that day I traveled with him all over the woods. He taught me how to fight in a different way than what my uncle taught me. I experienced so many things with that man. I was twelve and here I was following this guy and barely knew, around a land I knew nearly nothing about. Every few weeks Delta would drop me off somewhere safe, and leave for a day or two, but never discussed why. It happened so rarely that I didn\u2019t think about it too much. He brought me out drinking to these shady run down pubs, introduced me to plenty of older women, and got me caught up in a few good bar fights. We went on like this for months, traveling, drinking, sex, fighting, over and over to different locations. During those exciting months, I still knew very little about the man I was accompanying. At this point, I was having too much fun to even think about home. The outsider life was so much more carefree than guardians structured way of living. It wasn\u2019t until I met Delta\u2019s sister Echo that I started to learn more about him.<\/p>\n\n
That night that we arrived at his \u201chome\u201d if you could call it that. He set up a camp in a cave that was well hidden behind branches. I wasn\u2019t too thrilled to sleep in a cave since we were sleeping in cabins and bars for eight months now. Out of the branches came this girl, who at the time must have been sixteen or so. Delta\u2019s a very normal looking guy, so when I saw his sister, I was understandably thrown off. This girl had brown cat-like ears sticking out of her black hair. Her eyes were big and white, no iris or pupil, just white. Her skin was covered in this short tan fur, and she had a tail swishing behind her. She looked like an Egyptian goddess having a face of a feline but the body and clothes of a human. At that moment I was beyond confused about how this cat-thing could be related to a human.<\/p>\n\n
Delta wasn\u2019t good at introductions and dropped me off and said he\u2019d be back in a few weeks. So I was left with Catgirl in the middle of the woods, having no idea what to do. The worst part was that there was no booze or sexy women. There was only Catgirl. Echo really wasn\u2019t bad. She was a very talkative and playful girl who acted a little young for her age. It\u2019s like she never really grew up, and now that she had a friend around her age, she just wanted to play. It was like I had an older sister. She was an outsider though, and you could tell. Although she was very happy and cheery with me, some of the things she\u2019d say or do made me remember she\u2019s not so innocent. A pastime of hers was snatching birds and cutting off their feathers and torturing them because she claimed she \u201cliked to hear them sing\u201d. Echo was a messed up kid, I don\u2019t deny that. However, before sunrise when we were going to bed, we had many deep conversations.<\/p>\n\n
Echo explained to me how since she was very young, Delta would leave her in this tiny cave for days at a time while he would go do work. As she got older, days turned into weeks and weeks into months. I had no idea until then that Echo was all alone for every second me and Delta were out having fun. Even though Delta would leave her, she still loved him, but it was probably stockholm syndrome. She told me she was adopted by Delta, and she was the one who referred to them as siblings first. That explained a lot. Echo too didn\u2019t have any memories of her real family. I was so intrigued by these two, and their relationship. I wanted to know what happened to her parents, and how Delta got possession of her. Surely she wasn\u2019t as dumb as me to run away. Within a few weeks, like he had said, Delta returned, dropped off some supplies for Echo, and took me with him to our next adventure.<\/p>\n[aesop_timeline_stop num=”Bonus content” title=”Bonus content”]\n\n
Bonus Art:<\/p>\n[aesop_gallery id=”1541″]\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Kill the beast, save the princess, get the reward. Easy enough, unless the princess is a snotty boy. What am I suppose to now? <\/p>\n
Wait… I’ve got an idea.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":1672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12],"class_list":{"0":"post-1354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-playground","8":"tag-story","10":"aesop-entry-content"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1354"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1662,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions\/1662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolineblais.net\/tributaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}