Chapter One: Beginnings

Sars yawns, stretches, then curses as he falls out of bed. Ugh, lovely. Great way to start your 17^th birthday, isn’t it.

“You okay, Sars?” His best friend, Tulm, lifts his head from his own pillow.

“Yeah, just peachy. I simply fell out of bed is all,” he snipes back, then immediately regrets it. He is just trying to be kind, after all, him and his ever flowing fountain of kindness.

“Sorry, I was just checking….” Tulm trails off, sounding hurt.

Sars sighs, “No, I’m sorry, I’m just being irritable.” As always.

“If you’d like I can Mend you,” the Life and Earth apprentice says.

“Nah, I know the basic, I can do it myself.”

“You know it’s less effective on yourself.”

Sars doesn’t respond, not having actually known that. That does explain a few things, I guess.

Tulm shrugs, “Your body.”

“Alright, magyk man, do your thing.” He half chuckles, rolling his eyes, as he stands up and goes over to his friend.

Tulm smiles as sits up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, then holds his hands with his palms facing Sars. After a few minutes of green sparks passing between the two, he smiled, looking a touch more tired than before. “All done, Sars,”

Sars stands up and stretches, all the pain from the fall gone. “Thanks, Tulm, I swear you’re a miracle. No one else our age is half as good at that as you.” He shakes his head, smiling.

Tulm blushes a little, then coughs, “On that note, I’ve got something for you.” He reaches under his bed and pulls out a small box. “Happy Birthday!”

Now it’s Sars’ turn to blush, “How’d you hide this from me?” He starts unwrapping it, looking up to Tulm simply smiling. Turning back to the box, he finishes unwrapping it and opens it. Gasping, he lifts the obsidian blade out of the box. “Oh my, it’s beautiful!”

Tulm smiles again, “I figured a knife would be a good idea, seeing how you always seem to get into scrapes when you leave the tower. I figured you’d like this one.”

Sars thinks back over the last two months, where he’d gotten into 5 fights out of the 4 times he’d gone outside. “Yeah perhaps that’s a good idea.” He chuckles.

Tulm checks his watch, “We should go, class starts in 15 minutes.”

Sars nods, getting up and strapping the knife to his belt, beneath his robes. “Might as well get used to it,” he responds to Tulm’s raised eyebrow.

He shrugs, “Just don’t stab the professor.”

Sars chuckles, but doesn’t respond.

~~\/~/\~~

“Alright! That’s it, pack your bags, you’re free to go.” The Master Magyker’s voice rings throughout the chamber, quickly drowned out by the shuffling of parchment, closing of books, and the rising ruckus of Apprentices conversing with each other. Stepping forward, he goes to the table shared by Sars and Tulm. “Happy Birthday, Sars, congrats on making it to adulthood.”

“Uh, thank you, Professor.”

He nods, then looks at Tulm, “I believe your birthday is coming up as well, correct, Tulm?”

Tulm swallows, not accustomed to being addressed directly by the Professor. “T-two weeks, sir.”

“That’s what I thought. Soon you’ll both be of age to go on more… long distance missions,” he glances at Sars, “again.”

Sars thinks back to the aftermath of the last mission he went on, when he was 12. Coming back without a memory and having to relearn most things was not easy, although thankfully he’d retained some instincts and it didn’t take him too long to get caught up, but he still couldn’t remember anything from before that. They’d also set a minimum age on which you could go on such missions, mandating that an Apprentice must be at least 17, rather than just when they believed they were ready. “Uh… Sorry?”

The Professor laughs, “Ah, don’t worry Sars, we don’t blame you, it’s hardly your own fault that your memory was wiped.” His face sobers, “There is a mission I’d like to offer the two of you, however, assuming that you’re willing to take it. You would depart the day after Tulm’s birthday.”

Sars looks at Tulm, “You up for it, buddy?”

“Uh…” Tulm mouth was suddenly quite dry, “I… Uh…”

The Professor cuts in, “I’ll give you boys some time to talk it over, haste does not make for good decisions.”

Sars stands up as the Professor sweeps away, packing his stuff into his bag. “I think we should take it, Tulm.”

Tulm hesitates, “You know as much I do that I’m not exactly one for combat, Sars, and every time you go out you get in trouble of one sort or another.”

“This time it’ll be different, we’ll have an actual quest this time.” He looks earnestly at Tulm, “And besides, even if we do get attacked, that’s why you’re there, I can fight and you can fix me up!”

Tulm couldn’t deny that his friend is at fighting, but… “Give me a couple days to decide, Sars, as the Professor said, there’s no need to rush this.”

Sars nods sourly, “Alright… Come on, there won’t be supper left.” He starts for the door, trusting that Tulm would be following.