Moahahaha! I´m back! (silence) ... Anyone there?

Well, I´ve updated. I hope you like it... If you do, tell me! I only got one review from the last chapter, this is my first story. Tell me what I´m doing right, what I´m doing wrong, what I could do in order to improve etc...

This chapter features Stefan, one of the only pre-promotes I´ve been able to accept. I don´t know if he is OOC or not, this is how I think he is. Please tell me what you think.

Disclaimer: Would I be writing fanfictions if I owned it? Ummm, no.

Now, enjoy!

Tormod's PoV

" Better, but not great." Leif said as Tormod finished off with a Thunder spell.

" Aww... But what am I doing wrong? I already know Fire and Wind and I'm doing them quite well. What makes Thunder harder to learn?" Tormod asked with a disappointed look on his face. Leif chuckled a bit at his student.

" Child, the path to ultimate power is long. You'll have to learn that every spell is different in some way. You're not casting Wind and Fire in the same way, are you?" The elder said, Tormod nodded in response.

' He's right, Fire and Wind are different. It doesn't feel the same way to cast them...' Tormod said to himself as Leif smiled to him.

" You're a quick learner, child. I have to say that I'm impressed. Now, Wind is a weak spell. But it's easier for you to cast it, isn't it? And Fire is the strongest of all the three magic, light not included. But it's quite hard for you to use, am I right?" Leif said still smiling. Tormod thought about it for a while.

' He's right again, Fire is the spell I'm more used to. But I still need to pause between the attacks, for some reason it takes a lot of more energy to use Fire than Wind...' His thought where interrupted as Leif spoke up again.

" Thunder is somewhere in between. But as you may have noticed, Fire and Wind takes a lot more time to cast than Thunder, watch me." His teacher said and released a Thunder spell towards the cliff, which shattered as the bolt made contact.

" Did you see? It was a lot faster than Fire, right?" Leif said and Tormod nodded. It was indeed faster. " Now, you try. Try to make it as quick as you can." Leif said and took a few steps back in order to give Tormod some space.

' Okay, I have to get it right! Here goes!' Tormod told himself as he casted Thunder at the rock. " Thunder!" The lightning released itself from Tormod's palm and hit the stone just a second later. The cliff, however didn't suffer any damage at all.

" Huh?" Tormod pouted as he saw that the lightning left the rock unfazed. " What did I do wrong? Why didn't it..." He was interrupted by Leif's laughter.

" Hahaha. Oh, child. Haha. You can't expect to hurt a rock with your small force. You're so far not even classified as a mage. However, you are quite talented, but I doubt that you'll be able to shatter a big rock with a Thunder spell like that." Leif said with a know-it-all look on his face.

Tormod couldn't help but to feel disappointed. " Okay, what do I have to do in order to get better?" He asked. Leif looked down at him with his green eyes for a while. ' His eyes... They look a lot like Muarim´s eyes. I hope he's okay. What if...' Tormod was interrupted again as Leif spoke up.

" What you need is a power seal. I've got one. Look." The elder said as he took of his glove and revealed a strange mark on his palm. Tormod just looked at it. He'd never seen anything like it before.

" What is it?" He said with a confused look at his face. Leif laughed again, and Tormod started to feel silly.

" With this, I gain power. Thanks to this seal, I've been able to slay even sub-humans--" Leif continued to speak, but Tormod stopped listening at the word 'sub-human'.

' Say what! He... He killed laguz! And he's proud of it?' Tormod's mind was in uproar but for some reason he stayed calm on the outside. He just watched as Leif's mouth moved, but he didn't listen to the words thatwere coming out.

After a while Leif stopped talking, Tormod hadn't listened to asingle thing he said and Leif started preparing for bed. It was Tormod's first night without Muarim by his side since he and Muarim learned to know each other. He was anxious and uneasy, wondering if Muarim was okay, hoping he wasn´t angry.

' I hope that Muarim is safely at home...With the others. Those of his kind...' For the third time that day, Leif interrupted his thoughts.

" Child? Are you... crying?" The elder said and walked next to Tormod, who now realized that his cheeks were wet from tears. " Child. Why are you crying?" Leif said and stroked Tormod's cheek with his cloak to wipe the tears away. Much like Muarim always had done if Tormod cried. " Child... Tormod..." Leif said and pulled Tormod into his embrace as Tormod started shaking and sobbing.

' Why..? Why am I crying? I... It's not like I need Muarim by my side all the time.' He thought for himself as Leif patted his head and hushed a bit in order to calm Tormod down.

After a while Tormod stopped sobbing, but tears where still flowing down his cheeks. Leif decided that it was best not to ask, since Tormod hadn't told him in the first place. Tormod walked over to where he was going to sleep and wrapped himself in his blanket, but as the night came and Leif was asleep, Tormod got up again, collected his things and said quietly:

" Forgive me Leif, but I can't stay with someone who thinks its okay to kill laguz."

And with that, he walked away. Leaving his teacher all alone.

Stefan's PoV

A young man ran across the dunes. In the middle of the night. He was doing so at night because the cold air forced him to move to keep warm. His name is Stefan, and he was a myrmidon in training.

Another reason to why he was training during the night was that it reduced the chance of running into a sub-human. He hated, no detested them. 'Detest' sounds much better than 'hate'. And Stefan liked putting a bit of gloss on words.

He stopped running for a while and looked around, and then up in the sky. He had been living in the desert for a long enough time to be able to get a pretty good idea of where he was by looking at the environment, such as the stars, and be able to navigate by them.

" Let's see... That way!" He said to himself and ran in the direction he pointed out for himself, his light-green hair flew behind him in the breeze. He knew that there would be an oasis nearby, he was usually training in this area and where able to memorize how to find the oasis. But as he got there he saw something that didn't make him happy.

A man of average height where standing on a rock by the oasis. His black hair and clothes made him almost invisible against the dark sky, but Stefan had a well trained eye and could see him without much trouble, and he could see what the man had on his back. Something that made Stefan loathe him right away. Black wings.

" Sub-human..." Stefan didn't notice that he spoke out loud until he saw that the half-breed reacted at his words.

" You! Human!" The crow said and leaped up in the air and flew towards Stefan. After a short flight he landed quite close to the beorc, who lost his balance and fell.

" Okay, human. I'm looking for a human child, red hair and... What's that? On your forehead?" The bird said and pointed towards Stefan?s head. Said beorc panicked and quickly covered his forehead with his hair.

" I-I don't know what you're talking about! I don't have anything on my head!" He yelled, still covering his forehead. The crow just smirked and Stefan cursed under his breath.' Damn sub-human!'

" Well you got a fascinating hair color at least. I bet you that I could see it from the sky." Said the half-breed as he laughed to himself. Stefan sighed and in the same breath blew one of his bangs away from his face.

" Anyway, I'm looking for a red haired human child as I said and I'm not alone. My... Friends are also looking for him and we'd like to have some information. We need to find him before the grim reaper does. Have you seen him?" The sub-human said tilting his head a bit for some reason.

" No." Stefan said, quickly and honestly. He was beginning to get an uneasy feeling from the way the crow looked at him.

" Well, that's a shame. But I didn't expect less from a human like you... Parentless." The crow said with a blank stare. Stefan´s hand flew up to his forehead and he realized that his mark was revealed.

He scowled at the half-breed. '"Parentless" they call me. "Branded" sounds better.' He eyed the laguz in front of him. Why did he have to suffer because of sub-humans like this one? And why wouldn't they accept him as their kin?

Child of beorc and laguz.

Branded.

Parentless.

" Well, if you can't help me you're totally useless. I mean, look at you, you're a human. You can't fight without weapons at all and--" He didn't have time to finish his sentence before Stefan in a matter of moments got up and held an iron sword to the crows neck.

" He-hey! What are you--"

" I don't like the word 'parentless'..." Stefan said calmly and smirked. He pushed the sword closer to the bird?s neck and watched as the half-breed panicked. Just for fun.

" Wh-where did the sword come from?" The crow asked with panic in its voice. Stefan pulled away his robe to reveal the belt where the sword had been sheathed. His eyes never once leaving the crow.

" You said something about a child, didn't you? What are you going to do? Kill him?" Stefan asked, not doubting that just may be what the sub-human will do. The crow, however, shock his head carefully in order to avoid getting cut by the sword. Stefan doubted that they really wasn't going the kill the child, who knew what those monsters might do. He was going to reply, but before he could someone spoke up not to far behind him.

" Jerme! Do you need help?"

Stefan took a few steps back so that he could see the newcomer, and he didn't like it. The newcomer was a laguz, a tiger it seemed to be as it was well built, unlike the cats, and it wasn't a bird. A tiger like that could be trouble.

' Damn! If I have to fight that, then I doubt that I'll live to se the next sunrise!' He thought as he realized that tiger where among the strongest laguz and he was just a swordfighter.

" What is it Muarim?" The crow, who Stefan suspected was named Jerme,asked, all the panic seemed to disappear as the sword was removed. " Did you find him or something?" Jerme asked, but the tiger, 'Muarim' Stefan guessed, shocked his head.

" No. And it's really dark, and cold. I'm starting to get worried. What if he's harmed?" Muarim said, worry overflowing in his voice. This made Stefan quite confused.

' What? A sub-human who is worried about a human child? A blood-thirsty beast who's worried about a child? A child of different species, none the less.' Stefan looked at the tiger and then at the crow.

" We must keep going, Jerme. I want to find him as soon as possible." Muarim said, looking at his feet. Stefan decided that this was a good chance to escape as both laguz focused at each other, he made a dash away from the two sub-humans and he heard them scream.

" Hey! Stop!"

" Let him go, Jerme. He'll only slow us down!"

Stefan smiled to himself, laguz may not be so bad after all. He decided to keep an eye open for the child for them.

' Maybe... Maybe there are nicer laguz out there, willing to look for a small child in the middle of the night, in a desert none the less.' He looked behind him and slowed down when he saw that the laguz where gone. He smiled a bit.

' I hope they'll find the child. And that he's unharmed. And that they don't hurt him.' He thought as a breeze blew and a very cold one at that. He shuddered and started running again. Praying to Ashera that the boy was unharmed.

Hmm, hmmm... Well? Now what? I know, review! Please do. I´d like to know what you think. If you wonder anything, don´t hesitate to ask. I´ll be glad to help.

Bye bye.