The Burning Fiend

Reynolds arrived early at his first class he had many expectations as Grandpa Lomu did not knew much about fire magic. After a few minute the class started, there where around 20 children from which only 7 were girls. The teacher was a middle-aged blond woman who sported expensive looking red robes.

"Fire can be warm and gentle or burning and destructive, it could be a blessing of nature or a natural disaster. Fire elemental magus are among the most destructive and aggressive in battle".

Reynolds was entranced by her speech as he had never heard anyone describing fire or fire elemental magic before, he was slightly disappointed when he found out that they would not be learning spells today as the teacher would instruct the students that have never meditated before. Still he enjoyed the class and was eager to learn spells.

Days when by and he stablished his routine, he would start warrior training with Linley at 6 am then join George and Yale for breakfast before going to class at 8 am. Around 11 am he will train with the spear, at 12 pm he will head to the library for an hour to then join his dormmates for lunch. At 2 pm he will meditate for an hour getting free time until 7 pm for another hour of warrior training with Linley.

He found difficult to keep his schedule, as kid without supervision would and asked Linley how did he manage to keep his training discipline as he noticed the determination in his eyes whenever he would start training and avoid distractions and temptations, that usually came from Yale. Linley told him of his family history and the responsibility that his father had imposed on him of retrieving his family heirloom and restoring their honor and fame.

Reynolds was surprised and felt happy that he had no such responsibilities and pressure over his shoulders. After thinking about it for a few days, Reynolds decided that he needed a hobby to help him keep his sanity. It was too early to have a girlfriend as old man Frey have giving him until he turned 15 years old for that but as he could not think of anything that he could do on his own he started browsing through the library.

He found a topic that seemed promising, runes. Runes was a topic on which he had no much information available, but he understood that runes were magic with casual applications. The magic he was learning was used for battle while runes were used in magic-crystal cards, locks and even for defense. He got intrigued and started using his free time to look information on this subject.

After a couple of weeks, Reynolds was able to perform his first spell 'Fire Ball'. He was delighted and went to his dormmates to show them, Linley was smiling as he had long been able to release earth spells but he understood that Reynolds had been training magic for close to two years without casting a single spell and was happy to see his childish smile that reminded him of his little brother.

Half a year later Reynolds started his sparring sessions with Linley, he had absolute advantage with his 3 years of spear practice but went easy on Linley as they both enjoyed the experience. Reynolds reaffirmed his idea that sparring could be fun as long as there was no one beating him black and blue. Around this time, Reynolds also managed to reach the 2nd rank as magus and was incredible excited. Linley and Reynolds managed to breakthrough around the same time, but they decided to not use magic in their sparring sessions as magic could be difficult to control and they might ending wounding each other.

As Reynolds and Linley spent time training together everyday Bebe had grown found of Reynold as well and it was common to find him sleeping in Reynolds pocket while Linley was at class.

It was during this time that the yearly tournament will be held and the teacher tried to lure her students into signing up. Reynolds was hesitant to do so and decided to ask his dormmates. Perhaps it will be useful for getting a girlfriend, he would ask Yale that although he was still to young for that. What was he suppose to do with a girlfriend? He needed to ask Yale that too. Was it worth the time he would spend on the tournament at the expense of his training time? he needed to ask Linley that. So he decided to wait.

Yale of course agreed that gaining a good place on the yearly tournament would be useful for getting a girlfriend, but was surprised at Reynolds and Linley curious and sincere eyes as he asked him what was he suppose to do with a girlfriend. Yale could only laugh and did not know how to explain that.

Linley thought that it was not worth their time as most of the participants would only be first rank magus at best, it would be better to watch the battles of the older students to learn about battle between mages. But it was George who help him decide as he mentioned that the only prize will be getting a private dorm if he were to win. Reynold was happy with his dorm brothers and didn't want to live in a dorm all by himself.

So the four brothers watched the battles of the 5th and 6th grade students causing Reynolds to be disappointed as it seemed a child performance compared to the experience of been attacked by bandits during his travel.