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Description

Praise, envy, respect. I was used to those things. It’s what I usually got as a reaction when I talked to people. I was one of the youngest to get my curse in decades! A little extra treatment was expected there. But since the black night, everyone seemed to ignore my heritage. Something I was glad about. My parents were both Elite Warriors and there was barely anything in Mereldia they were more proud of. Once upon a time, a year ago, it had been me, their only son. But I had chosen the rank of a Scout and with that was disowned by them. My parents had always been a little distant, so I did not mind as much as I probably should. Silas, my tutor, had taken me in as if I were his own son and I had grown quite attached to his little daughter Arisa in the year it has been now. She was like a little sister to me and I always protected her when anyone dared to tease her about her muteness. But there was someone else who usually took the prize when it came to scaring away anyone and anything that even tried to look at Arisa the wrong way. Melody. She was the same age as Arisa, the Leader’s daughter and Arisa’s best friend. Also, she had grown to be like a little sister to me. Even though both of them were barely a year old, I already could see what kind of mares they would become later on in life. Due to Melody having connections with us, we were regarded slightly higher than other families and also I, the wondrous talented kid, was well known.

    I knew positivity from all sides around. Respect from the older ones and awestruck jealousy from the ones my age or younger. If neither of those was the case, then it meant that I was dealing with Sylk.

    I had three best friends, though formerly it had been four. Those were Ayanna, Perez and Fenaenon. The discarded one was Sylk. He has also been our friend once, but ever since we had started to find our elements, which was about two years ago, we had drifted apart. I was a water mage, he was a fire mage, so animosity was bound to happen. Then there had been the incident with my initiation magic a year ago, after my curse awoke. My magic had been at its strongest and I had attempted to prank Sylk by throwing some water at him. Long story short, I almost threw the whole lake at him. He never let me live it down and still brought it up almost every time we talked. And he had been jealous. Very jealous. But not anymore, for he just had his Appreciation Ceremony. Where has my poor carefree life gone?



    »Running away again, coward?« Silk asked. I slowed my trot down to a walk and eventually stopped.

    »We are not all gormless, you know?« I said with a frown. I may be in training for about a year already, but Sylk had fresh initiation magic at his disposal. I didn’t stand a chance, barely anyone did. And he lusted for revenge, undoubtedly because of that ›throwing the lake at him‹-thing from last year. I was at a huge disadvantage against a fire mage anyway, so I did not take any chances.

    »In contrary to you, I have training now.« I said and resumed to trot away. I knew from experience that reason would not help me here. Sylk was a persistent person.

    »Excuses! Do you want to tell me that the almighty talented Jason is too chicken to fight someone who has no experience?« the chestnut stallion asked in a mocking manner. I sighed, but did not stop or even look back at him. My sight was stubbornly fixed up front, so that I did not send any wrong impressions.

    »Like I said: we are not all gorml- Hey!« I suddenly yelled and jumped back as a wall of fire blocked my way. I tried to make myself a pathway with ice, but it was no use. Sylk had his initiation magic and this was magic fire. No water in the world would be able to extinguish it.

    Left with not many other options I eventually turned around and tried to look calm, as if this would not faze me at all. On the inside I was furious. I would not begrudge him the pleasure of seeing me angry though. This was a fight of wits and as a Scout I was determined not to lose it. Well, Scout Apprentice. But still! Sylk was not even an apprentice of anything, he yet had no training. But he was not here to fight with words. He was here to fight with magic. I just had to trick him. Silas’ words on how to outwit a stronger enemy echoed in my mind. I was clever, Sylk was not. Well, at least not clever enough to see through my tricks.

    »Look, I already said I’m sorry about that lake-thing and the only thing that really happened back then was drenching you to the bone in lake water. If you plan to grill me crispy now, then this would be quite an inappropriate act of payback, don’t you think?«

    »Oh, don’t worry, I don’t plan to kill you, I just want my revenge.«

    »How soothing. Well then, what are you waiting for? And by the way, you are burning the forest edge right now.«

    Out of panic that I was right, Sylk extinguished the large flames, which gave me the time to bolt to the forest. He would not be crazy enough to use fire in the woods. An open field? Yes. But not in a highly flammable place like here. I had bet wrong though, since I suddenly found myself upside down.

    »Damn drooling Kelpie!« I cursed. I had disregarded one of the most important rules Silas had taught me; Never underestimate your opponent. I had absolutely thought that Sylk would resort to using fire only, since he had always been so proud of it. But he still also had control of earth and air. I had that too, but my magic was, for the moment at least, weaker than his. So, no matter how hard I tried, I was caught in the strong vine that kept my back legs up, letting me hang at the forest’s edge upside down like a weird fruit.

    »Okay, you got me. One point for you. Now let me down.« I said since I was really not in the mood for things like this. Sylk took his sweet time to walk over here. I had a serious problem containing my anger with every passing second. It was very frustrating to be powerless.

    »Now it’s you who is at the mercy of powerful magic, hmm?« he asked, clearly enjoying my unfortunate situation.

    »Bite iron.« I spat, now eventually having enough of this folderol.

    »Well, you don’t have any of it on you, have you?« He asked with a complacent grin. I let out an angry growl that was most unbecoming of me. But what in the netherworld, I was pissed! Very pissed!

    »To be honest, you look better this way. Being all helpless, I mean. It’s very satisfying.« Sylk added with a smirk.

    »Congratulations for finding your meaning of life, I guess.« I said through gritted teeth.

    »You know what, Jason?«

    »What?« I asked with a voice dripping with contempt.

    »On the next Black Night, I will choose to become a Warrior. Unlike you, I am brave enough for this rank and unlike you I also am fit for it.«

    »I know, you basically talk about nothing else.« I said, softening my voice a little. While I would absolutely love to add remark about it or about the other things he had told me about what he wanted to accomplish in life, I couldn’t. He had lost his father when he had been just one year old. A proud Warrior stallion that had gone on a seemingly harmless mission to Nordberg. He returned as a corpse, carried by his team mates. At least that is how my mother always described it to me. I had not seen it myself. They claimed to have been attacked by a Heranor and that Sylk’s father fought bravely to enable them to get to safety. When everything had been safe, they had picked up his corpse and wandered back to Derenta.

    I did not especially like my father, but at least I had one. Sylk didn’t. I was sorry for him. His dream was to avenge his father and to kill the Heranor. However, his dream of defeating a centuries old god all on his own was witless insanity. Now even an Elite Warrior could do that.

    »Let’s hope you get a tutor that teaches you to not hang people upside down from vines for your own personal pleasure.« I eventually said to not get into sensible topics.

    »Oh, don’t worry about that. I just hang you upside down from vines for my own personal pleasure.« Sylk said with a cruel snicker.

    »What an honour.« I deadpanned. »Let’s just hope your hunger will not grow too severe. I doubt anyone would be happy about you devouring the son of two Elite Warriors.«

    »Cretin, this is part of my revenge, not a hunt.« Sylk said with an eye roll.

    »Oh, how torturous, hanging me upside down from a vine.« I said with a flat face. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have said that, for it inspired Sylk to step up his game.

    »Too comfortable for our precious gold boy?« he asked through thin eyes.

    »That was a low blow, Sylk, even for you.« I said through gritted teeth. This was what my mother had always called me before this one Black Night in which everything had changed. Even though I never admitted it, I missed those times when I had still felt loved by my parents.

    »You’re right. Why physically torture you when I can do it mentally?« he said with a sneer and dissolved the vine- This left me dropping to the ground face-first. I did not say anything but just glared at him.

    »I’m a Scout. You cannot get me with such foul tricks.« I said, then turned around and trotted off. I felt Sylk staring after me while he stayed where he was, probably contemplating what to do next time we met. I sighed again. Next time I would come more prepared.
Guess who managed to finish this picture today after all!
First real art of this year, yay for that!
And since most of you and als I wanted to see a picture of both Sylk and Jason, I gladly drew one. This was the first scene that popped into my head and I thought: why not? It's new, it's good for practice. So I did it. Poor Jason is not happy with this situation. :'D
Whoever wants to ship these two is free to do so, since Polly also got me into the shipping.

Also I tried something new on the background here with colors and mood, inspired by Brother Bear. The grass is drawn singlely with brushes, which was a pain. I like my other method much better, but I wanted it look less soft than usual, so here you go. I think I failed. :'D

Enjoy!

Sylk, Jason & art © me (*Lilafly 2017)

Description

Praise, envy, respect. I was used to those things. It’s what I usually got as a reaction when I talked to people. I was one of the youngest to get my curse in decades! A little extra treatment was expected there. But since the black night, everyone seemed to ignore my heritage. Something I was glad about. My parents were both Elite Warriors and there was barely anything in Mereldia they were more proud of. Once upon a time, a year ago, it had been me, their only son. But I had chosen the rank of a Scout and with that was disowned by them. My parents had always been a little distant, so I did not mind as much as I probably should. Silas, my tutor, had taken me in as if I were his own son and I had grown quite attached to his little daughter Arisa in the year it has been now. She was like a little sister to me and I always protected her when anyone dared to tease her about her muteness. But there was someone else who usually took the prize when it came to scaring away anyone and anything that even tried to look at Arisa the wrong way. Melody. She was the same age as Arisa, the Leader’s daughter and Arisa’s best friend. Also, she had grown to be like a little sister to me. Even though both of them were barely a year old, I already could see what kind of mares they would become later on in life. Due to Melody having connections with us, we were regarded slightly higher than other families and also I, the wondrous talented kid, was well known.

    I knew positivity from all sides around. Respect from the older ones and awestruck jealousy from the ones my age or younger. If neither of those was the case, then it meant that I was dealing with Sylk.

    I had three best friends, though formerly it had been four. Those were Ayanna, Perez and Fenaenon. The discarded one was Sylk. He has also been our friend once, but ever since we had started to find our elements, which was about two years ago, we had drifted apart. I was a water mage, he was a fire mage, so animosity was bound to happen. Then there had been the incident with my initiation magic a year ago, after my curse awoke. My magic had been at its strongest and I had attempted to prank Sylk by throwing some water at him. Long story short, I almost threw the whole lake at him. He never let me live it down and still brought it up almost every time we talked. And he had been jealous. Very jealous. But not anymore, for he just had his Appreciation Ceremony. Where has my poor carefree life gone?



    »Running away again, coward?« Silk asked. I slowed my trot down to a walk and eventually stopped.

    »We are not all gormless, you know?« I said with a frown. I may be in training for about a year already, but Sylk had fresh initiation magic at his disposal. I didn’t stand a chance, barely anyone did. And he lusted for revenge, undoubtedly because of that ›throwing the lake at him‹-thing from last year. I was at a huge disadvantage against a fire mage anyway, so I did not take any chances.

    »In contrary to you, I have training now.« I said and resumed to trot away. I knew from experience that reason would not help me here. Sylk was a persistent person.

    »Excuses! Do you want to tell me that the almighty talented Jason is too chicken to fight someone who has no experience?« the chestnut stallion asked in a mocking manner. I sighed, but did not stop or even look back at him. My sight was stubbornly fixed up front, so that I did not send any wrong impressions.

    »Like I said: we are not all gorml- Hey!« I suddenly yelled and jumped back as a wall of fire blocked my way. I tried to make myself a pathway with ice, but it was no use. Sylk had his initiation magic and this was magic fire. No water in the world would be able to extinguish it.

    Left with not many other options I eventually turned around and tried to look calm, as if this would not faze me at all. On the inside I was furious. I would not begrudge him the pleasure of seeing me angry though. This was a fight of wits and as a Scout I was determined not to lose it. Well, Scout Apprentice. But still! Sylk was not even an apprentice of anything, he yet had no training. But he was not here to fight with words. He was here to fight with magic. I just had to trick him. Silas’ words on how to outwit a stronger enemy echoed in my mind. I was clever, Sylk was not. Well, at least not clever enough to see through my tricks.

    »Look, I already said I’m sorry about that lake-thing and the only thing that really happened back then was drenching you to the bone in lake water. If you plan to grill me crispy now, then this would be quite an inappropriate act of payback, don’t you think?«

    »Oh, don’t worry, I don’t plan to kill you, I just want my revenge.«

    »How soothing. Well then, what are you waiting for? And by the way, you are burning the forest edge right now.«

    Out of panic that I was right, Sylk extinguished the large flames, which gave me the time to bolt to the forest. He would not be crazy enough to use fire in the woods. An open field? Yes. But not in a highly flammable place like here. I had bet wrong though, since I suddenly found myself upside down.

    »Damn drooling Kelpie!« I cursed. I had disregarded one of the most important rules Silas had taught me; Never underestimate your opponent. I had absolutely thought that Sylk would resort to using fire only, since he had always been so proud of it. But he still also had control of earth and air. I had that too, but my magic was, for the moment at least, weaker than his. So, no matter how hard I tried, I was caught in the strong vine that kept my back legs up, letting me hang at the forest’s edge upside down like a weird fruit.

    »Okay, you got me. One point for you. Now let me down.« I said since I was really not in the mood for things like this. Sylk took his sweet time to walk over here. I had a serious problem containing my anger with every passing second. It was very frustrating to be powerless.

    »Now it’s you who is at the mercy of powerful magic, hmm?« he asked, clearly enjoying my unfortunate situation.

    »Bite iron.« I spat, now eventually having enough of this folderol.

    »Well, you don’t have any of it on you, have you?« He asked with a complacent grin. I let out an angry growl that was most unbecoming of me. But what in the netherworld, I was pissed! Very pissed!

    »To be honest, you look better this way. Being all helpless, I mean. It’s very satisfying.« Sylk added with a smirk.

    »Congratulations for finding your meaning of life, I guess.« I said through gritted teeth.

    »You know what, Jason?«

    »What?« I asked with a voice dripping with contempt.

    »On the next Black Night, I will choose to become a Warrior. Unlike you, I am brave enough for this rank and unlike you I also am fit for it.«

    »I know, you basically talk about nothing else.« I said, softening my voice a little. While I would absolutely love to add remark about it or about the other things he had told me about what he wanted to accomplish in life, I couldn’t. He had lost his father when he had been just one year old. A proud Warrior stallion that had gone on a seemingly harmless mission to Nordberg. He returned as a corpse, carried by his team mates. At least that is how my mother always described it to me. I had not seen it myself. They claimed to have been attacked by a Heranor and that Sylk’s father fought bravely to enable them to get to safety. When everything had been safe, they had picked up his corpse and wandered back to Derenta.

    I did not especially like my father, but at least I had one. Sylk didn’t. I was sorry for him. His dream was to avenge his father and to kill the Heranor. However, his dream of defeating a centuries old god all on his own was witless insanity. Now even an Elite Warrior could do that.

    »Let’s hope you get a tutor that teaches you to not hang people upside down from vines for your own personal pleasure.« I eventually said to not get into sensible topics.

    »Oh, don’t worry about that. I just hang you upside down from vines for my own personal pleasure.« Sylk said with a cruel snicker.

    »What an honour.« I deadpanned. »Let’s just hope your hunger will not grow too severe. I doubt anyone would be happy about you devouring the son of two Elite Warriors.«

    »Cretin, this is part of my revenge, not a hunt.« Sylk said with an eye roll.

    »Oh, how torturous, hanging me upside down from a vine.« I said with a flat face. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have said that, for it inspired Sylk to step up his game.

    »Too comfortable for our precious gold boy?« he asked through thin eyes.

    »That was a low blow, Sylk, even for you.« I said through gritted teeth. This was what my mother had always called me before this one Black Night in which everything had changed. Even though I never admitted it, I missed those times when I had still felt loved by my parents.

    »You’re right. Why physically torture you when I can do it mentally?« he said with a sneer and dissolved the vine- This left me dropping to the ground face-first. I did not say anything but just glared at him.

    »I’m a Scout. You cannot get me with such foul tricks.« I said, then turned around and trotted off. I felt Sylk staring after me while he stayed where he was, probably contemplating what to do next time we met. I sighed again. Next time I would come more prepared.
Guess who managed to finish this picture today after all!
First real art of this year, yay for that!
And since most of you and als I wanted to see a picture of both Sylk and Jason, I gladly drew one. This was the first scene that popped into my head and I thought: why not? It's new, it's good for practice. So I did it. Poor Jason is not happy with this situation. :'D
Whoever wants to ship these two is free to do so, since Polly also got me into the shipping.

Also I tried something new on the background here with colors and mood, inspired by Brother Bear. The grass is drawn singlely with brushes, which was a pain. I like my other method much better, but I wanted it look less soft than usual, so here you go. I think I failed. :'D

Enjoy!

Sylk, Jason & art © me (*Lilafly 2017)