Whack

Faris grimaced as he held out his hands. Which had begun to form red welts.

"Forty-three" He winced before receiving another smack from an incensed Anya.

When he had returned to the village, he told the villagers that he had led Anya into the forest to attempt to trick her back and make a fool out of her, after which the bear showed up, Anya had wanted him to receive 100 lashes, his mother argued that while he had been irresponsible running into the forest no one got hurt and he brought Venka back safely. Eventually, everyone settled on 45 lashes to the hands. The "worst part" was that his mother had actually wanted 70 lashes, his dad, bless his soul was the voice of reason.

"He meant no harm, and you all know Venka's been starting to get a big head, it's great that our village will get attention because of her talents and ability, but it wouldn't do any good to have her end up getting to big a head."

The villagers agreed that that was a reasonable point and agreed on the side of leniency.

"Forty-five" Faris finished with a sigh, unsure what to do with his hands to lessen the pain.

Anya looked at him with contempt and anger. "If you have an issue with Venka's behavior as her teacher I will do something about it, don't go pulling stupid pranks like that again!" She turned in a huff and stormed back to the school yard, which doubled as her home.

Faris watched her go, his face still in the mask of pain, but his head clear and thinking. The second she began whipping him she had begun to invade his thoughts to try and see whether he had spoken the truth. Thankfully Angela had taught him well, allowing him to blank out most memories of the incident. She had begun to search deeper until he visibly twitched and looked around, after which she withdrew with confused panic. Faris was upset over her intrusion. From what he learned from Angela, many of the laws of the Broddring were enacted by Nasuada in order to limit the actions of Mages both in and out of state control, one such thing was the requirement for a mage to request permission from a regional mage or city magistrate before delving into the minds of a normal citizen, unless the mage is certain their life is in danger they are held by law to uphold that rule. Then again Faris doesn't follow that rule, but he also doesn't look at people's memories, he only observed surface thoughts and willfully kept himself from observing anything else, a challenge that at times required him to just not try to connect to anything, but at the same time it was a training tactic utilized by Oromis when teaching Eragon, and it helped spread his mind and quicken his thoughts.

His mother walked up to him, her face hard, and grabbed him harshly by the arm. "Alright then, we are going home this instant!" Faris' face paled, his mother's never been this angry before, he followed her, turning to his father for help, he simply shrugged and walked behind them. As soon as they reached their home Faris' mother hugged him.

"Oh my baby boy! Are you hurt anywhere? Do you have a fever! Do you need some soup! Mommy's sorry you had to face that, but you really did almost hurt someone! Don't worry mommy like that again okay!?"

"Mom you're squeezing me too tight!" Faris wheezed as Haya continued to hug her son until he started literally turning blue.

"Ok! Go washup, dinner will be ready soon!"

Faris sighed, shouting, "Yes mom, love you mom! See you dad!" as he ran to the washroom. Whilst there he contemplated healing his hands, but chose to let nature take its course after checking to make sure it wasn't infected. He returned to the dining area to see his favorite dish, roast venison and grolbi, a grain that was basically sweet and spicy white rice imported from Surda. It was expensive so Faris began to wonder what was going on.

"Happy birthday son!" His parents shouted. Faris looked in confusion, then realized it probably was his birthday, he had forgotten it again.

Memories flooded of a time he was known by Damien. Damien sat in a large oak table, a lovely chandelier was the only other thing in the empty room. On the table was a cake, 3 pieces had been sliced off, two of them were untouched, and would likely be left untouched until a maid was called to clean it up. Damien had a bandaged cut on his finger, from where he accidentally messed up slicing a piece of cake. There was a single candle with the number 14 on his slice, and a note on the table.

"Sorry dear! Mommy and Daddy are busy at a pitch meeting for Daddy's new movie. Happy birthday."

Damien hadn't even read the note, it had been the same note last year, and the year before. He took a bite of the cake.

"Chocolate, just like every year" He took another bite. He hated chocolate cake.

Tears glinted in Faris' face, his parents looked on in concern until he smiled brightly at them. "Thank you for having me!" He said gently.

His parents smiled and hugged him. "We are blessed to have you Faris. Happy 10th birthday."

(a pretty short chapter this time, it was basically a supplement to chapter 6, but I wanted to put chapter 7 as a flashback, I want to sporadically dash in a few flash backs here and there to help explain what Faris knows and how he deals with issues.)