The doors at Fairbreeze Academy were wide open as Falthrey stepped into the building. Like most other high elven establishments, it was furnished with books and all sorts of magical gear. The walls were lightly colored with beige and faded golden colors, reminiscent of when they were first built thousands of years ago.

Falthrey looked around for his seat and came upon it; the front row seat in the middle column, just like it had always been for as long as he had been attending school. He always liked being in front, it meant he could get all the information first. He was certain that this little edge would get him a bright future at Silvermoon University. The professor, Mrs. Brightsun was not in the classroom at the moment so Falthrey took this opportunity to unpack his things. He got out his dictionary of magical terms, his textboox of the schools of magic, his inkwell and feather pen. Finally, Falthrey looked around the room. Mrs. Brightsun was just coming in as was the rest of the class.

Inside Falthrey's bag was his most prized possession. It was his father's glass orb, made completely of condensed flames. Anaster had used this orb of fire in his blacksmithing. It gave the extra heat Anaster needed to make the more difficult items and allowed for his business to take off. Or at least, go somewhere other than nowhere.

Falthrey picked up the orb from the bottom of his backpack and cradled it in the palm of his hand. It was cool to the touch, as it was only hot when combined with the extreme heat of a forge. Even though it was a blacksmithing tool, something Falthrey never intended on doing, the orb was precious to him. After all, it was a gift from his father. Falthrey stared deep into the glass orb, watching the magical fires within dance and lick in an effort to escape. The bell rang but Falthrey did not notice, he was so mesmerized and simply could not pull away…

"What do you have there, craft boy?"

Some older high elven child, snatched Falthrey's fire orb from his hands and he gasped at the sight.

"Give that back! It's mine!"

"Oh it is now? Well guess what craft boy? Things like this only belong to people who can use magic! Like my family! You're just the son of a lowly blacksmith."

"Take that back!"

The older boy teased Falthrey with his inability to physically get his precious fire orb back…that was until the older boy was pulled backwards into the teacher's grasp.

"Lucien…how many times have I told you to not bother the other students! Now give poor Falthrey his orb back, before I do a lot worse than use a little pulling spell on you."

"Yes, Mrs. Brightsun."

Lucien reluctantly gave Falthrey his orb back, but he managed to wrest it from his hands. Falthrey put the orb back in his bag immediately, but not before Lucien shot Falthrey the nastiest glare he had ever seen. Falthrey cringed and quickly buried his head in his text book.

The bell to Fairbreeze Academy had rung and Selynne continued to walk nonchalantly into the building. As she opened the door to her classroom, Mrs.Brightsun singled her out almost immediately.

"Selynne Duskblade! You are late AGAIN. Just because your father is in Dalaran with our prince, does not mean you have the right to come late to school. Do you understand me, young lady?"

Selynne stayed silent and put her things on top of her desk as she sat down.

"Well?"

"Yes…Mrs. Brightsun"

"Good, now class we will resume our lecture about frost spells and why they cause others to slow down…"

Falthrey looked back into the seemingly endless rows of seats until he came upon Selynne. He looked at her questioningly, as if thinking 'Why would ANYONE wanna be late to class?'. During this entire staring session, not once did Selynne look at Falthrey. She merely slouched back in her seat and stared at the blackboard without interest. Unfortunately, Falthrey's curiosity went a bit too far.

"Mr. Dawnbringer, do you have a thing going for little Ms. Duskblade?"

"Huh?! No! I was just…I mean I was- uh, so uh, what about fireball?"

"Mr. Dawnbringer, we are on Frost magic today."

"Right! I knew that, I was just…um…uh…"

The children laughed at Falthrey and he blushed furiously. He dug his head in his work and beckoned Mrs.Brightsun with his pleading eyes to continue her lesson. She had mercy on the poor boy and quickly got the class back in line, with the exception of a few stray chuckles and giggles.

Since the mention of her name, Selynne had been staring at Falthrey. She gave him a rather skeptical look, as if he had been the oddest thing she had ever seen. In amazement she continued to stare at him until eventually she decided that she might as well get some school work done.

"And that concludes our lesson on alchemy, see you tomorrow class!" dismissed Mrs. Brightsun.

Falthrey gathered his belongings into his backpack and cheerfully made it out of the classroom and eventually the building. He was humming to himself and was giving a small smile. Despite the embarrassment, Falthrey had learned a bit more than usual today, something he always hoped for whenever he got up in the morning.

He had started on the path to home until he heard his stomach grumble. Falthrey stopped in his tracks and looked down innocently at his stomach. It was the oddest thing because never before had Falthrey been hungry so early. He had a filling breakfast and lunch, so what could possibly beckon him to want to eat?

Without warning a pleasant aroma wafted into Falthrey's nostrils. He turned his head in the direction of the scent, and it turned out to be Falthrey's favorite snack. It was nothing else but warm sweet nectar and corn bread!

Falthrey dug into his pocket and pulled out some money. He had 50 copper left from his weekly allowance, more than enough to get a snack! As he walked over he had almost made it to the line, when his face hit the dirt.

"Ow!"

"Oh I am terribly sorry…craft boy!"

Falthrey's eyes shot up in fear as he was being lifted by Lucien's buddies and held upside down as his backpack was emptied.

"No Lucien please don't!"

"Don't what? Don't take your precious fire orb?! Haha!"

Falthrey wrestled out of the grasp of Lucien's knuckleheads and landed hard on his back. He got up as quickly as could only to watch Lucien pick up the fire orb and kick the rest of Falthrey's stuff around into the dirt. Lucien laughed maniacally until he was tapped on the shoulder.

"Give it back."

Lucien turned around and at first saw nothing, until he looked down. And their right before his eyes, holding the most stoic look, but at the same time, a look of utter disgust…was Selynne.

"Aw. How cute. Little craft boy's girlfriend came to rescue him!"

Selynne watched him laugh into the air and as swiftly as she moved, was as swift as his laugh turned into a gasp for air. Selynne went into a straight elbow jab into his gut, paralyzing his diaphragm, and as Lucien was bent over, Selynne did a quick chop to the side of his neck, making him topple over to the side in pain.

Lucien's knuckleheads had their eyes open wide with fear as they saw their leader get knocked to the ground by a little 8 year old girl. When Lucien hit the ground, and Selynne shot them a glare, they bolted out of the marketplace as fast as their feet could take them.

Falthrey's face rose from the dirt and looked up to see Selynne, holding his fire orb out in front of him. Falthrey rose to his knees and took the orb in his hands. He looked at it for a while, and then his eyes rose to meet Selynne's. Her eyes were as blue and beautiful as his were, and he soon became lost in them. He just continued to stare. Sure she was only a little girl but Falthrey couldn't help but feel some sort of attraction to her. She was cute and…she saved him and his most prized possession. That was when Falthrey fell in love with Selynne.

"What are you staring at?"

"Hm? Oh! Sorry, I was just um…looking…for the right words? Yeah! That's it! I wanted to thank you for getting my orb back. My father gave it to me you know…he's the…"

"The blacksmith?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"You're the Dawnbringer boy. You live across from me. That and your father's business is Dawn Armory. Your mother's business is Dawn Tailoring. I figured as much."

"Oh. Yeah you're right…But um…yeah…thanks for saving me. I didn't think anyone would come to my rescue."

"Lucien is a big patoot. He only knows how to beat up other kids."

"Yeah, but you and me…We are smart."

"What do you mean by you and me?"

"Us. I mean…I don't know. Stuff? Yeah…"

Selynne grumbled. "Spit it out!"

"Your just pretty…and heroic."

At this Selynne blushed. "I'm…what?"

"Pretty…um…yeah stuff…And thanks for saving me."

"No problem…um…well I better get going…homework and stuff…"

"Yeah I understand, I should go home too."

"See you tomorrow…pretty boy."

Falthrey blushed as Selynne walked off towards her home. He just kept on looking at her and little did he know that the entire way to her home, Selynne was smiling and thinking 'He thinks I'm pretty…no boy ever said that to me before!'

Falthrey then took a moment to look into the sky, past the crimson trees with the golden trunks…from this moment on…his life would be changed forever.