The warm summer sun beat down on Faris' face as he lay at the edge of the pond, warming himself from his swim in the small lake. He found this lake with his friends a few weeks ago, it was right by the village's edge, and had several streams that flowed both in and out, so the water was pretty clean.
Of course, Faris could always heal if he or any of the other kids got sick. But he chose normally to let the sickness take its course, helping build up all those immunities no matter how painful it got, along with all his lessons with Angela the most important one she taught him was pragmatism. Despite all her eccentricities she was ultimately very logic oriented.
"Don't go relying on magic to save you for every little thing, or you'll be too tired to do anything about the real issues." He murmured to himself as he gently touched his eyes, cooling them slightly from the sun's warmth. He had turned 7 when Angela returned with him back to the village for the last time, the Kingdom's agents had gotten wind she frequented the area so it wasn't safe for her to be here anymore. Faris was sad to see her and Elva go but he didn't worry too much about their safety, Solembum for the most part still seemed to come and go, Werecats by law where a respected people and harming them could bring about hefty fines, and even then, very few people would be foolish enough to try and tangle with a werecat.
That being said, he opened his eyes and looked to the sides, the children were playing in the lake, some swimming, others splashing about, and a few others skipping stones or playing with sticks, bugs, or whatever else they could find, apparently times had been good as there were at least 20 children out and about. Faris closed his eyes again, he missed the time he spent with Angela, and he missed the Urgal village, he was never strong enough to join any of their rough games until the very end, and by that time the kull youth were much to big for him to even attempt to play wrestle. The fights among the human children were honestly child's play in comparison to the epic wars between the urgal children. Faris' inner thoughts were interrupted by a splash of water directly into his face, some going up his nose. He sputtered and shot up quickly, trying to catch who had done it.
"Why are you just lying there! Tired already?" A girl called out to him.
"I was trying to dry myself off, no help form you!" He retorted as he turned to his assailant. Venka, a girl with deep green eyes, fiery auburn hair, and an even more fiery temper stared at him with a smirk on her face.
She was the oldest of their group, which made her one year his senior, and received extra lessons from Anya, the local state magician due to being the only one of their generation found blessed with magic.
Of course, I was taught by Angela to hide mine. Faris mused. But even he had to admit even if he was more knowledgeable and likely skilled in the magics compared to Venka and even Anya, Anya had years of experience and more magic due to her naturally larger adult body, and Venka, to his dismay, had an abnormal amount of magic since birth, enough that the reason Anya was in this village was for the sole purpose of training and helping Anya learn and understand her magic. Of course, most of the villagers didn't trust her at first, so her skills in teaching the other children skills like reading writing and complex arithmetic, skills only accessibly taught to the children of the wealthy or noble. This coupled with her healing the villagers of the various injuries and illnesses that many faced earned her a place in their hearts.
Faris didn't like her, Anya pretended to be nice and kind and cordial, but she held a smile for too long, and acted too bubbly, it didn't feel natural on her, in fact, the only time he ever observed her actually being happy or interested in something was when she began to teach Venka magic, Venka wasn't slow by any means, and her high magic reserves meant she could spend hours learning a lesson, so her pace was fast. She new over 30 words in the ancient language, and could cast a host of spells. Anya favored Venka so obviously that it was almost comical how none of the adults really noticed, lessons Venka would take half an hour on with the rest of the children she would spend hours upon hours gently tutoring Venka. Since every one of Anya's general lessons were things he already learned, Faris took it upon himself to help the other kids who had trouble after each lesson, because of that he earned their favor and friendship, Venka wasn't happy with the idea of someone else being regarded as the best and smartest child in their village, so she did her best to annoy and antagonize him. Of course, she was taught she should never use her magic without strict guidance or permission. Another bucket sized ball of water smashed into Faris' face. Of course, though, she wasn't the most obedient child around.
This time Faris was ready when the third ball came towards him, he struck out with his fist open palm, slapping a good deal of water right back into Venka's face. She worded her spell to have the water form a ball and hit him, which due to her extreme level of magic and lack of common sense normally formed the water into a smooth almost class like ball as hard as concrete, luckily, she was pretty slow speaking the ancient language, and even Anya at her fastest was no match for him. So, he mixed her spell with his. Spreading the water out just enough to keep it form breaking bones and bruising skin, it still stung though, but it was worth it as Venka sputtered in rage.
"How dare you splash me! I have lessons with Ms. Anya later today and I have to look presentable!" She hissed at Faris with contempt on her face. She raised her fist to hit him, and fell face first as he slipped by and tripped her.
"Your punch is so slow I saw it yesterday while I helped my mom bake pies." Faris laughed as she picked her self up, dirt clinging to her damp hair and skin.
"We'll see who's laughing when I-!" She was interrupted by a stick barely missing her face and startling her.
Faris stuck a tongue out at her and began to run into the forest. "Catch me if you can!" He barely had to wait a few moments before her heard her chase after him, followed by the raucous laugh of the children, who by now had gotten used to this game, as long as Venka focused on Faris, she was too busy to assert dominance over the other kids, and they could play and get along as they liked. The dark greens of the forest were the perfect camouflage for Faris, who wore a mottled green tunic and a pair of green leggings whenever they went to the lake, other kids called him silly, asking whether he was trying to be an elf or something, but they soon had to admit that he was fantastic at hiding amongst the dense undergrowth of the forest when he wore the clothing.
Venka on the other hand stood out like a literal single ripe strawberry on a bush, last pick of the season. He stifled a laugh as he saw her fumble into the forest, her cloths and hair being tugged on by the numerous branches. He had been generous enough to break a few branches and twigs to give her a bit more leeway, but she still seemed to attract every single loose branch and twig on her path as she blindly moved forward. Faris tailed her, sticking to the thick branches above so as not to fully alert her, the animals acted naturally around him due to his promises in the ancient language to not be a threat to them if they allowed him to pass bye. He played this game with her many times, run into the forest, lead her down a path until she game up and began to panic, then pretended he found her and then he'd run back, an angry Venka in tow, she'd normally give up the chase when they returned to the lake, get scolded by her parents when they got home, then get coddled by Anya, rinse and repeat. Today was a little different, Venka had gone much deeper than she did before, even deeper into the forest than Faris had ever gone. He grew worried, he mostly avoided this area because of the bear tracks he encountered, he didn't want Anya to know that he was tailing her so he pulled ahead, there was a clearing there and if he reached it, he could lure her in then begin the chase home before something bad happened. He reached the middle of the clearing just in time to see Venka bundle in, her eyes inflamed and face determined.
"Looks like you go-!" Faris began before he was lifted 10 feet into the air by Venka's spell. His eyes widened in panic, the point of this game was to exhaust her so that she couldn't cast spells, he probed her mind and found that she was close to maybe halfway exhausted, yet she still had so much energy! Faris would have felt envy if he wasn't panicking over this situation.
"Not so tough now are you! This will teach you to make fun of me! Look how strong I am! I'll leave you up there all day until you beg for mercy or pee your pants!" Venka laughed cruelly. Faris rolled his eyes at this, even with her large reserves of magic, Venka was straining herself, he was probably the heaviest thing she lifted, and she chose to lift him from 20 ft away high up in the air at a rapid pace and hold him at that height, she had to put everything into keeping him afloat and likely wouldn't have the concentration to cast another spell. Faris looked down at her, both literally and figuratively.
"I don't know, I kind of like the view, I can be here all day, but you know you can't." Faris replied to her taunts with equal haughtiness, but he was backed up by science, she couldn't keep the spell going on forever, and if push came to shove he could borrow some energy from the forest, there were so many plants and animals in the area that he could over power her briefly if he took only a quarter of the total reserves collected, but he wouldn't need that much energy, the use of the technique left him feeling sick, as the first time he used it he accidentally killed some saplings and a badger under his favorite tree. In fact, there was a large amount of energy right behind them, just half of that would be enough.
Wait, Faris began thinking before calling out in panic, "Venka! Behind you! Bear!"
"Like I'm going to fall for that loser!" Venka giggled shaking her head, she was visibly perspiring at this point but continued to concentrate on the impertinent boy in front of her, that was likely why she only then noticed the deep ragged breathing behind her, turning to see a ginormous bear raising its matte black furred claws to swipe down at her. Faris did not hesitate in the slightest.
"Skölir!" A light gray force popped up between the bear's claw and Venka, blocking it from tearing her apart, a few seconds into it's attack the bear began to back up, Faris had connected to its mind, it had no way of understanding what he did so he used it's reserves to fuel the shield used to protect Venka from that attack, when the bear attacked her just then, it likely felt a huge sap in energy, it tentatively reached to hit her a few more times before roaring and turning around, bounding rapidly into the forest. Venka for her part stood completely still as the spell holding Faris in the air collapsed and he fell to the ground, he ended up using more energy that he would have liked to slow his fall, but they were alive and that was all that was important. He turned to look at Venka who was swaying woozily.
"Crap!" He yelled as he ran towards her, catching her before her head crashed into the hard rocks, he scraped his arms, elbows, and legs badly, tearing into his clothing, but couldn't do anything about it. His clothes were too damaged to mend with magic, and he wouldn't be able to explain the tears and dried blood on smooth clear skin, Venka was a terrible healer, and it was one of the lessons Anya seldom taught due her painful ineptitude and the fact practicing such a skill often included finding an injured and distressed person, who likely didn't have the patience to wait a few hours until a little girl finally figured out how to heal a broken wrist. He scowled as he slung her on his back, making his way back into the town. "Why'd you have to be so heavy stupid!" He did his best to concentrate in front of him, as to avoid looking at her unconscious, calm face, which looked uncharacteristically pretty to him at the moment.
(skölir means shield, in Brisingr, Eragon learned the skill to use the energy of other living beings to fuel his spells, he first knew he could communicate with beings other than Saphira when he spoke to Snowball to calm him back in book one, and mind communication is a very simple skill any magic user can do, though Venka as a child doesn't see what's so cool about it, thus doesn't utilize it very well. Magic users in the story have already demonstrated being able to pool their strength together, such as the case with the twins, the magic users of Du Vrangr Gata, and Eragon and the 12 elven escorts led by Blodhgarm who notably used their combined might to overpower an Eldunari powered Murtagh. Faris, who already knew of these techniques and who has a high skill in magic control could likely understand and utilize this skill, of course, he is still young so his ego is still a bit undeveloped, using this likely takes a huge mental toll on him if he accidentally kills an animal while borrowing their strength.)