"Ash, Gary, we need to go now!" Shouted a very rushed aura guardian, his name was Aaron Ketchum, Ash's father. The aura guardian grabbed the two of them by their arms and began to run through the burning wrecks that were once houses and shops. The raven haired boy was confused, wasn't his father supposed to be on the front lines of the battle between the aura users and humans? Ash looked around, from every direction he could see people running and screaming, the town was being invaded. By humans...
Ash snapped his eyes open and sprung upwards out of his bed, he was breathing heavily and had a cold sweat on his forehead. He looked around, it was just a dream...Or more likely a nightmare. He walked over to look out of the slightly dirty window, the sun was just peaking over the mountains, time to get ready. He sauntered over to a pile of clothes that were by his bed and began to get changed, once he was done he checked how he looked in the mirror on the door. He was wearing an blue tunic with black leather trousers and black boots, he was ready to go, he grabbed his satchel and made his way downstairs.
As he reached the last step, a strong smell of cooking food filled his nose, he smiled and walked into the kitchen. "Morning mom!" He said cheerfully as he entered the kitchen, his mother turned to greet her son with a smile on her face. "Good morning honey! You seen to be in a good mood today" Her face turned to a frown, "But I wish you brush that mop on your head!" Ash just chuckled and sat at the wooden dining table.
Ash they began to eat their breakfast, Ash remembered his nightmare and decided to ask his mother about it, "Hey mom" He said, getting her attention, "Do any aura users have...I dunno...Future sight abilities?" He said slowly whilst playing with the sausages that were on his plate, Delia frowned, "That's a strange thing to ask but...I don't think I've heard of any who do...why do you ask?" She asked curiously, Ash shrugged, "Just checking" He said quickly as he finished his food and stood up, "Well, I'll be off, I need to meet Gary" His mother nodded and followed him to the door, "Have a good day honey" She said as she waved him off, Ash nodded and stepped out into the fresh morning air.
As Ash was walking along the trail, he took in the view, you could see all the way to the horizon from his town since it was up in the mountains. There was a light layer of snow over the highest points of the mountains around him, he looked down into the valleys where the rivers ran and the wildlife gathered, they were only just receiving the first of their sunlight. he carried on walking but then stopped. On the far mountain's side in front of him he could have swore he saw something glimmering silver, but as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone... He thought for a few moments but the shrugged it off, if it was something dangerous then one of the lookouts would have called out, it was probably just a reflection of sunlight from some melting snow. That was the reason why this place was called the shining mountains. He continued to walk on wards towards his destination.
A while later, Ash arrived at a big stone building, it had a big sign on the front gate that said 'Aura training institute'. This was where he went to school and learned how to use his kind's trump card, aura. He walked over and leaned against one of the walls in the huge courtyard and folded his arms, he began to wait for a certain spiky haired brunette. Aura users were known for mostly having black hair, like Ash's, but there were rare cases where a person would sometimes have brown hair like Gary and Ash's mother. He took a small gem out of his pocket and began to inspect it, he had found it in one of the mountain's rivers last week and had been mesmerised by it ever since, it was dark blue and shaped like a rain drop. It seemed to glow whenever he held it. The sound of Gary's voice brought him out of his thoughts, "Hey Ash!" Shouted the brunette as he ran over to him, "Are you excited about learning our first attacks today?" He asked excitedly as they began to walk into the building together, Ash nodded with a grin on his face, "I can't wait! It's gonna be awesome!" Gary smirked, "Just try to keep up with my talent, maybe you should take notes" Gary teased with his usual cocky attitude, Ash rolled his eyes.
Later on at lunch, Ash and Gary were back in the courtyard, lazing around. A group of girls the same age as them walked past, one of them looked at Ash and blushed slightly, the other girls picked up on this and began to giggle. As they were about to walk away, a necklace fell out of the girl's pocket and onto the ground, Ash noticed that the girl hadn't realised so he went to pick it up. As he did so, the gem in the necklace was glowing bright blue and was spreading the light through out Ash's body. The group of girls all turned around with wide eyes, "Woah..." Said Ash, Gary didn't know what was going on either, he held out the necklace for the girl to take back. "Here, you dropped this" He said with a goofy grin, the girl was blushing deep red, she was about to take it back when she suddenly froze. Ash tilted his head in confusion, "What's wrong?" He asked curiously, "Y-Your eyes...T-They're glowing blue..." She said slowly, Ash looked at Gary and saw that his mouth was hanging open, he would have laughed if this wasn't as serious as it was. He quickly turned to look at the girl again and dropped the necklace into her hand, as soon as he did, the glow faded and his eyes returned to their normal brown colour. "T-Thanks..." She mumbled shyly and then began to walk away, Ash returned to Gary and they both sat on a bench. "Dude, what was that?" Gary asked curiously, Ash shrugged, "It just happened when I touched that necklace" He said, dumbfounded.
At the end of the school day, Ash and Gary were walking home, Gary clicked his fingers as an idea popped into his head. "Dude, maybe it was one of those aura surge things" He said, Ash looked at him with a raised brow, "I couldn't have been, I wasn't sad or angry" Gary shrugged, "It looked like one, but I'm glad that it wasn't, you know happens when you have an aura surge right?" Ash smiled, "Left" He had a habit of saying that when he didn't quite understand what Gary was talking about, the brunette rolled his eyes. "Well, people who have aura surges technically lose it, they release all of their power and go on a rampage. It's triggered by experiencing a very serious negative emotion like hatred or grief, the chance of death for someone in an aura surge is very high since they practically burn themselves out and die from fatigue. The lucky ones who survive are normally found and killed by human patrols since it takes a long time to recover before you can even lift a finger! Although, it's a very rare ability for us...Only a few people have it and most of those who do, don't even know it!" Ash's eyes were wide, "Seriously Gary, you should become an aura professor! You know everything about this stuff!" Gary snorted, "Really? This was what we learned about first lesson, weren't you listening?" He said with a confused look on his face, Ash scratched the back of his head with a goofy grin, Gary laughed slightly. "You fell asleep again didn't you?" Ash nodded, Gary laughed again and they continued to walk home. Ash could have swore that he saw that shining again, it seemed to be moving...Closer...
Ash pushed the door open and walked in, followed by Gary. "Mom! I'm home! I brought Gary over!" He shouted, his mother walked into the living room from the kitchen. "Hello Gary! Please, make yourself at home." She said happily, Delia considered Gary a second son, he was always welcome to come to the ketchum household. "Thank you miss ketchum" He said with a smile on his face, Delia waved her hands, "Call me Delia honey, there's no need for you to be formal, you've been coming over here since you were little!" Gary nodded, Ash decided to butt in, "Uh mom, me and Gary were thinking of going into the mountains for a while, can we?" Delia thought for a moment, her son was seventeen, he needed to explore at some time..."Okay honey...But be careful, do you know any aura attacks?" She asked cautiously, Ash nodded with a grin, "I can make an aura sword and Gary can form a bow, we should be fine, the only dangerous things up there are snow leopards but they're quite rare." His mother nodded, "Okay, have a fun time!" She said as the two teens walked out of the door.
(Half an hour later)
Ash and Gary were sitting at their favourite spot on the mountain, it was near the edge of a cliff that had a gorgeous view of everything as far as the eye could see. To their left was a crystal clear river that flowed over the edge and made a beautiful waterfall, to their right were various different berry bushes and nut trees. Ash had a handful of berries, Gary on the other hand, had a handful of nuts. They had just been sitting quietly, occasionally eating and taking in the view. Gary spoke up, "Hey Ash" He said, getting the raven haired teen's attention, "What do you think of the humans?" Ash raised a brow, "Where did this come from?" Gary shrugged, "Nowhere, just wondering" He said casually as he popped another nut into his mouth, Ash looked back out over the mountain range, "They're greedy bastards who only care about how much something benefits them if they do it. They're also cold blooded killers and should be the ones who have a tiny population, not us..." He said with a harsh tone in his voice, Gary tilted his head, "Maybe not all of them, they have families too you know" Ash didn't look at him, he continued to stare at the horizon, "We don't kill their families, we only defend ourselves but they continue to attack and our population gets smaller every day, this is the last stronghold for us. If they find this place...It's all over..." Gary looked at him with a sad look, "Your father has been a big influence in this decision hasn't he?" Ash ignored him, "Ash, maybe they are taking orders? Perhaps they're being forced to do these things" Ash's eyes snapped in Gary's direction, "Why are you defending them! Have you forgotten what they did to your parents!?" As soon as Ash said that, he wished he hadn't, that was too far. Gary's face shaded over, "Woah...Gary, I didn't mean it like that man, I'm sorry..." Ash said guiltily, A few seconds passed before Gary replied, "It's okay...I know that you hate them for that, but to be honest, I just want the war to end...I want peace, not more deaths." Ash shrugged, "Who knows, maybe we will have peace someday" Gary nodded, just then, Ash noticed the shine again. "There it is again...What is that?" Gary raised a brow, "What?" He asked curiously, Ash pointed at the silver shining that was now heading up the side of the mountain that their town was on, "That" Gary's eyes went wide, "Dude...That's what steel looks like when sun reflects off of it." Ash raised a brow, "What do you mean?" Gary's face turned to one of horror, "Those are battle ready humans...We're under attack..."
(20 minutes later)
Smoke...Screaming...Swords clashing...It was all that the two teens could hear and smell as they sprinted to their town through the trees. They were running full out, their legs ached and their lungs screamed for more oxygen, but they had to keep going. They finally broke through the last of the branches and saw what horrified them, the entire town was on fire, corpses were everywhere...Ash saw that the main group of attackers had headed down the street to his left...That street lead to his house...To his mother. "Gary, go check if your grandpa is okay, I need to find mom" Gary looked hesitant but eventually agreed, "I don't think that it's a good idea to split up but...We do need to find people as quickly as possible...Okay fine, but please, don't get killed" Gary pleaded, Ash scoffed, "Are you kidding, a guy as handsome as me won't go down easily" He shouted as he took off down the lane, taking the back streets to avoid the human soldiers.
Ash vaulted over the last wicker fence and made it to his house, just as he burst through the back door, a soldier kicked in the front one. His mother was cowering in the kitchen, "A-Ash...R-Run..." She whispered weakly, she was trembling, Ash growled. He formed an aura sword and walked into the living room, he saw three strong looking men, all of them were wearing light silver chain mail. The living room had been trashed, the wooden stools had been thrown against the wall and the men were already going through all of his family's belongings. They hadn't noticed him walk in, "Hey! Fat asses, that's my stuff!" Their heads snapped in his direction, when they saw the glowing blue blade that he was holding, they instantly pulled out their own swords. "Seems we've got a rat in here" Said one of them, they didn't appear to be taking him seriously, "Brave little brat aint ya" Said another, "More like stupid" Snickered the last, Ash sighed, "And I thought that the humans had decent soldiers" He grinned, "You let me down..." He said with fake sadness, "We'll see how long you can keep up that cocky attitude, bet that it will fade along with your pulse once my sword is in your heart" Said the biggest one darkly. Ash grinned, "Iv'e always wanted to slay a human, time to make dad proud, bring it!" Ash taunted as he took a battle stance, the biggest one charged first.
The human brought down the sword in a fast chop, Ash swung his blade upwards and parried the attack, the hit sent shock waves through his arm. He then tried to bring the sword backwards and stab the soldier in the gut but he rotated his wrists and swatted his sword to the left. The human jumped backwards, "Not bad...If only you weren't an aura user..." Ash scoffed, "Then I'd rather be dead!" The human grinned, "You will be soon..." He lunged forward with the blade stretched out in front of him, at the last moment, Ash sidestepped and stuck out his foot. The soldier tripped and was sent flying into the wall with a huge crash, Ash was on him in a flash, the human brought up his weapon to block Ash's downward swipe but suffered a kick to the nether regions. He was winded and couldn't block the aura sword as it plunged into his chest and through his heart, ending his life.
Ash was panting, he was both relived and thrilled, he had slain his first human! He turned around just in time to dodge the side swipe from one of the other soldiers, "You bastard! You killed him!" Ash grinned, "And you're next..." He taunted, The soldier growled and rushed forward, readying an upward diagonal slash. Ash brought his blade downwards and blocked the attack but was head butted by a steel helmet in the process, he felt a warm liquid trickle down his nose. This time he attacked first, he went for a side swipe, the human bought up his sword into a defensive pose and was ready to block the attack. Ash's sword clanged against the soldier's and sent shock waves up both of their arms, but instead of stopping, Ash tackled the soldier with his whole body and knocked him to the ground. As he fell, the human dropped his sword, and was killed in the same way as his friend. A stab to the heart. Ash pulled his blade out of the dead soldier's chest and turned to look at the other, to his surprise, he was backed up against the wall. His sword was on the floor and he was whimpering, "P-P-Please d-don't kill m-me, I was o-only taking orders..." Ash raised a brow, "From who?" He asked without any emotion on his face, "T-The king, he was c-crowned last month, h-he said t-that we need to exterminate all a-aura users because they a-are too dangerous. If people don't listen to what he says...they're killed...But some people h-happily went along with it, I-I'm only doing this for my family." Ash looked him up and down, he had thought at first glance that he was strongly built, but he was actually quite chubby. And a coward as well. Ash sighed, "I should just kill you..." He said as he put a hand on his forehead, he noticed that it had blood on it from his nose. "P-Please, I b-beg you...I have a daughter...I only want to go home" He said as he started to tear up, Ash sighed again.
The human was thrown against the wall, he had a black eye and was missing a few teeth, "Okay...so what are you gonna do?" Asked Ash casually, "Go to tha captian and shay that I I fownd another aura villash wif the informashon I got fom a auwa user." He mumbled through his swollen lips, Ash nodded, "Good, make sure you don't come back!" He said coldly, "Now get out!" The man nodded and hobbled out of the house. Ash turned and walked into the kitchen, "Mom...Are you oka-" His face turned to one of horror and his voice cut off when he saw that his mother was gone, there was signs of a struggle, she must have been kidnapped whilst he was fighting. He prayed that the worst hadn't happened...
(2 minutes later)
Ash was running through street after street, the humans had moved further into the town now, Ash could hear the sounds of aura users fighting back. He rounded a corner and literally smashed into Gary, "Guh!" "Agh!" they both grunted. Gary's eyes went wide, "Ash! You're okay!" Ash nodded, "I see that your grandpa is okay" He said as he noticed the old man standing behind Gary, "Good to see you Ash!" He said happily, Gary changed the subject, "Where's your mom?" Ash's face turned to one of anger, "When I got to my house, there were three of those bastards in there" Gary's mouth dropped, "Three!?" Ash nodded and continued, "I killed two of them and the other one begged for his life so we made a deal, he got to live if he lead all of these humans away from here." Gary was amazed, "Wow Ash! I can't believe you killed two humans! We haven't even had combat training yet!" Ash grinned but then became serious, "I think my mom was kidnapped whilst I was fighting, she was in the kitchen when I got there but after the fight, she was gone and there were pots and pans everywhere." Gary looked scared, "You don't think-" "No I don't" Ash quickly cut him off, "I'm trying to find her now" Gary nodded, "Okay, lets go!" The two teens began to run towards the main source of the sounds, the school...
(At the school)
Ash and Gary pushed open the huge steel gate, once they were through, they could see that the courtyard was full of humans that were fighting aura users. Woman and children were cowering against the wall and the men were doing the best they could to protect them, it didn't look like they could keep it up for long. "Gary! We need to help those guys!" His long time friend nodded and they began to run towards the battlefield, out of the corner of his eye, Ash caught a glimpse of his mother. She was throwing aura spheres at a huge burly man, it didn't seem to be working..."Gary, my mom's in trouble, I'll be right back!" He shouted to the brunette, "I still don't like this idea but whatever, stay safe man!" He replied as they ran in separate directions.
Ash's eyes went wide, the man that was attacking his mother had brought up a huge hammer, he was going for a downward smash. Delia was frozen with fear, the teen sprinted as fast as he could and dived forwards, knocking his mother out of the way just in time. "Ash! Oh, thank goodness you're okay!" Ash looked her in the eye, "What happened to you?" He asked quickly, his mother began to explain, "Whilst you were fighting, that huge man over there picked me up and carried me away, he probably wanted to do horrible things with me. Otherwise I would have been killed on the spot." Ash felt anger well up inside him, nobody messes wit his family, he formed a sword and stood up. "Stay out of this mom, this guy's mine" He said as he walked towards the huge brute, his mother tried to stop him but he wouldn't let her.
Ash was now standing in front of his mother's attacker, "You humans really piss me off, you know that?" He didn't get a response, only the swing of a hammer, which he jumped upwards to dodge. Ash looked the man up and down, he was wearing heavy steel armour that had scratched and dents all over, his weak spots looked to be his neck, arm pits, back of the knees and the middle of his back. The brute started barrelling forward, attempting to squash Ash flat. He had to think of something, there was no way that he could trip this guy...An idea popped into his head, just as the knight reached him, the teen slid between his legs and stood up behind him. His weight prevented him from turning fast enough so the brute suffered a deep slash to his back, the human grunted in pain. He wasn't done yet though, he grabbed his hammer with two hands and swung it 180%. Ash dropped to the ground just in time, he felt the air from the hammer whip his hair up, he jumped up threw a rock at the human's masked face. The rock impacted with a clang and sent painful shock waves through the soldiers head, he dropped his hammer and put his hands on his head to try and stop the awful sensations. The next thing he felt was far worse, a stab to the neck. He gurgled on his own blood, "Well...fought..." He then fell to the ground with a huge crash, attracting the attention of most of the people nearby. Everything went silent, it was like the battle had been frozen, Ash heard one of the humans speak to another. "He just killed the captain...What do we do now?" "I don't know...Eliminate the threat!" They said darkly.
Most of the humans were now focused on trying to kill Ash, from every direction he was dodging sword slashes and mace swings. He suffered a few nasty gnashes and bruises, he ducked under yet another sword swing and was about to dodge another, when he tripped. "Got you now!" Shouted one of the soldiers as he brought the blade downwards, "Is this it? Am I going to die here?" Thought Ash, his question was answered almost immediately after it had been asked...
Ash saw her...His mother...With a relived smile on her face...And a blade through her chest. "A-A-Ash...L-Live o-on and be strong...I-I l-love you..." She whispered as her eyes closed and she collapsed to the side of him. Ash's eyes were wide, it was as if time had slowed down, he looked a his dead mother. Anger and hate but mostly grief were flowing out of him, "No...no...no no no no! This wasn't supposed to happen." He mumbled desperately, "You weren't supposed to die! he shouted as a blue mist enveloped his body and his eyes started to glow the same colour. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, I'LL SLAUGHTER EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!" He screamed madly. Ash formed two blue swords, one in each hand, he turned to the soldier that had killed his mother. He had a terrified look on his face, "A-A-Aura surge!" He shouted but was cut of by a blade tearing through his chest like paper, literally slicing him in half and sending blood everywhere. The nearby soldiers were trembling as Ash lunged at them with his blades crossed over each other in an X shape. He began to kill every human he saw, each with one slice...
(Hundreds of human deaths later)
The blue glow was still seeping out of Ash. He was covered in the blood of his enemies, all of which were now dead. He was just standing in the middle of the courtyard, motionless, whilst tightly gripping his two swords. Gary and his grandpa had seen everything, Ash's mother's death, Ash's anger and the aura surge...Everyone was now staring at Ash, who was standing over his mother's body, as if he was guarding it. He was glaring at seemingly nothing. Gary looked at his grandpa, "I need to try and calm him down, there aren't any enemies left, so he can't release the rest of his power. It's the only other way to end the aura surge." Gary's grandpa looked at him, "Gary, I know that Ash is your best friend...But there is no telling what he will do whilst going through an aura surge, he could kill you!" Gary frowned and looked back at Ash, the blueness hadn't stopped radiating from him. "Screw it..." He said to himself and walked in the raven haired teen's direction. "Gary! What are you doing!?" Called his grandfather, Gary didn't turn around, "Ending this..." He replied.
As Gary got closer, he could almost feel the emotions flowing out of Ash. He took one more step and froze as Ash's glowing blue eyes snapped up into his, he held up one of his swords in Gary's direction, "Stay away...Or I'll kill you..." He said menacingly, Gary was shocked, Ash would never say that to him. He attempted to reason with him, "Ash...It's me, Gary...I..Need you to calm down, okay?" He said soothingly as he held out his hands and slowly stepped forward, "I said stay back! Do you want to die!" Shouted Ash and he spun his swords and took a battle stance, Gary's eyes widened, Ash wasn't joking around. "Okay...Ooookaaaaayyy..." He said slowly, "I'm not gonna come any closer..." Gary took a few steps beck, Ash seemed to relax and went back to standing by his mother's body. A few seconds passed before Gary spoke again, "Don't you think we should bury her, we can't just leave her here..." Ash didn't say anything, only continued to stare, Gary didn't know what to do. Suddenly, Ash spoke three simple words, "She's not dead..." Gary felt sorry for him, "Ash...She took a sword to the chest, there was no way that she could of survived...Our powers don't heal us that fast..." It was true that aura users had extreme regenerative abilities, but they only worked if the person was still alive, and they took time to heal. Gary noticed that the blueness was beginning to fade, "She didn't deserve this...She was too kind...Too innocent..." Ash mumbled as he collapsed from exhaustion. Gary sighed in relief, Ash was back to normal, he looked over at Delia's body. "Goodbye...Mrs Ketchum, I'm sure Ash will miss you..." He said with a sad tone in his voice...
(The next day)
Ash slowly opened his eyes, the first thing that he noticed was that he wasn't in his house, he was in a huge tent. The next thing he noticed was that he was starving, he looked himself over, he had cuts and bruises all over his body. All of his injuries had cloth wrapped around them, somebody had tended to his wounds. He looked to his left and saw sunlight peeking in through the front flaps of the tent, "Better go and see what's going on..." He said to himself. The teen slowly rotated his legs over the side of the bed and put them on the ground, they ached like hell. With a grunt of effort, he stood up and got changed into a brown tunic with long sleeves and a pair of black trousers. He pulled on his black boots hand headed outside.
Ash walked outside and had to shield his eyes for a moment because of the brightness, but they soon adjusted and he took in his surroundings. All around him were tents and carts with horses on the front. They had set up the camp site in a big grassy clearing that was near the bottom of the valley and the river. Most of the people from the town were here, he saw Gary at the bottom of the hill, he was lifting a bucket up out of the river. Ash made his way over to him, on his way there, some people greeted him where as others expressed how amazed they were that he could defeat all of those humans. Not one person gave him a look of fear of disgust, because they all knew how friendly Ash was. when he got close to the brunette, Gary noticed him and dropped the bucket he was carrying. "Ash!" He ran over to his long time friend, "Hey buddy" Ash said casually, trying to forget everything that had happened, especially his mother's death. Gary looked relived to see him, "I'm glad you're back to normal, I had no idea that you were capable of having aura surges...Just like your old man." Ash nodded, although, he wasn't sure that it was something to be happy about. "So, um...Where's mom" He said with an upset tone, Gary nodded, "We were about to hold the funeral, we're going to bury her underneath the peach tree that grows at the bottom of the water fall. Are you coming?" Ash took a deep breath and then nodded, Gary put an arm around his friend's shoulder and they headed to the funeral...
(At the funeral)
After the speeches had been said, the coffin had been buried and the tears had been cried out, Ash and Gary were sitting on rock over looking the river. "Imagine what dad is gonna do when he finds out..." Said Ash, "It's all my fault, I wanted to protect her but I ended up making her save me instead. Dad's gonna slit my throat..." Gary felt awful to see his friend like this, Ash began to speak again, "Iv'e decided..." Gary raised a brow, "Decided what?" He asked curiously, "I'm going to go to the human kingdom, and kill the king!" Gary couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Kill the king!? I don't think that's as easy as it sounds!" He said, Ash continued staring into the river, "I heard from that soldier I spared that the king is forcing those humans to join his army, if they refuse, they and their families are killed." Gary's eyes widened again but he kept listening, "However, some of those bastards went along with it, he must be paying them, perhaps I can show everyone that aura users are not what the king has been filling their minds with" Gary nodded, he understood where ash was going with this, "What I'm saying is, I want to start an-" "Uprising" They both finished at the same time, "We could even try to get the scouts involved" Said Ash, Gary frowned, "It's true that the scouts are very good with stealth, and they have heightened senses like hearing and sight, but they don't really get involved with us since they suck at taking orders. Especially from another race...Plus we'd have to find them in their home, the forests of Celestia..." Gary noticed Ash's expression change at the word 'we'd', "Wait...Don't tell me your going to do this on your own..." Ash thought for a moment, "Sorry Gary...But I don't want to put another person that's close to me at risk, I don't want you to end up like mom..." Even though Gary wanted to protest, he understood where Ash was coming from.
After a while of thinking he sighed, "Okay...But you better come back alive other wise I'm gonna kill you!" He said jokingly, Ash rolled his eyes, "And make sure that no one finds out that you're an aura user, just in case they call the guards, get a cloak or dye your hair with mud or something." Ash nodded, "I need you to cover for me, the longer that people don't know where I am, the better."
(Later that night)
Ash pulled up the hood of his cloak and turned to face Gary, "Well, how do I look?" He asked as he flexed, Gary chuckled, "Like weird guy, but not an aura user, here take this" Gary said as he handed Ash a sword, it looked quite durable and was very sharp. "Remember, if you run into trouble, no aura, just your sword." "Yeah yeah" Ash said as he waved him off, he looked at himself in the mirror. Ash was wearing a black cloak that ended at his ankles with a black linen shirt and black cotton pants, he also had a pair of black boots and a belt that held his sword. It was hidden from view by his cloak. He walked over and picked up his brown knapsack which he then swung over his shoulders and made sure it was firm. "Okay...I'm ready to go." He said to Gary who nodded and they both walked outside to where a horse was waiting for Ash. The teen climbed up over the side and looked down at his best friend, "The next time you see me, the king will be dead and this war will be over!" He said confidently, Gary rolled his eyes, "Just don't do anything stupid, okay?" Ash nodded, "Until next time buddy" He said as he dug his heels into the horse's sides, making it take off into a gallop. Gary watched his best friend ride away, "Until next time Ash..." He was about to walk into the tent when an idea popped into his head, "Does that mean that I get to have his gem collection whilst he's gone?" He said with a goofy laugh.
(On the trail to the human kingdom)
This is it! This is where history will be made! "Human kingdom, here I come!" Shouted the over excited teen as he rode deeper into the night, towards his destination...
