The Beast Within

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

"You are up next." The soldier organising their movements nudged him with the tip of his boot.

Ceraun did as was directed, stepping forward so that he was standing directly in front of the small opening.

He was slightly surprised to see what was on the other side, the three non-Mages from earlier were seated around a sturdy table, papers piled in front of them in the roughly hewn wood.

"Name?" The lady official asked without raising her head to even acknowledge him, the huge man with the tattoos on his head paid him no mind either, engrossed in shuffling at the papers in front of him.

The last official who looked a similar size to the other non-Mages he was used to seeing however could not take his eyes off Ceraun, it was upsetting.

He could not look back into those disturbing grey orbs for too long, who even had such color of eyes, like the clouds on a stormy day.

"Ceraun Feyrer." He replied, his voice trembling a bit with how uncomfortable and self conscious he was but that was only because they had caught him off guard.

Before the second question was asked he had gathered his wits around himself, his black eyes going shrewd.

If he planned to win against the non-Mages he had to be prepared to fight people like those seated on the other side of the window from him and defeat them.

"Magical ability?" The lady official asked again, her eyes still fixed on whatever she was engrossed with scribbling on the paper in front of her, her tattooed hand occasionally reaching to the side to dip her pen in the bottle of ink prepared.

"Lightning." He replied steadily, his eyes fixed on the woman's head like he was imagining what it would be like to lop her head off.

Laela's head shot up at this point, her icy blue eyes narrowing, she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end

Somehow she was not surprised to see the threat behind the child's bottomless black eyes, on the contrary what surprised her was her response to it.

"Lightning eh?" Ciel interrupted her musing with his irritating voice, she could barely stand the soldier, for a Knight, he was crasser than the lowest of peasants.

It particularly irked her that he had been granted the rank of Captain after showing up on the battlefield for barely a couple months.

Something she had to work so hard for, literally scraping the skin off her back and occasionally putting her life in danger to get to but she was the mere child of peasants and a woman as that, the tides were all against her.

"That is quite rare." Ciel pointed out, voice airy but Ceraun could not shake off the unsettling feeling that the non-Mage official gave to him.

"Family?" Laela continued her questioning, intrigued by the Mage child, just the slightest bit though, she had learnt to ignore them or she would only give herself a raging headache and heartache if she dwelled too much on them.

"My father and mother, I am an only child." He said precisely.

By that time, Dritan had finished up what had him occupied and looked up to take in the Mage that was getting enlisted.

"You get into fights a lot?" He asked, curious about the scar on child's face.

Although he knew fully well what caused it, as a veteran on the war front against the abominable creatures plaguing the nation, there was little he was yet to see.

"No." Ceraun replied, eyes averted, he wondered if it would affect his enlistment, wouldn't that be ironic.

If Dew were still here, she would have thrown hell over his and Adrik's decision to join the army and yet his scar which was connected to her death might just be the very thing that would keep him from joining the war.

"How did you get that scar on your face then?" Dritan asked, dark eyes level.

Ceraun shrugged as nonchalantly as he could although his throat felt like a big pebble was sitting inside of it. "Tripped and cut it against a rock. "

"A rock that happened to be a Siren, huh?" Dritan asked calmly, studying the way the Mage boy's eyes darted from side to side as he realized he had been found out.

"What does it matter?" Ceraun asked, rubbing his cheek. "A rock? A Siren? A soldier’s sword?"

Dritan burst out laughing at this, dragging out surprised reactions from the two other non-Mages sitting to his side.

Laela was the most shaken, she had been with his regiment for nearly a year now and she was yet to see him smile wide enough to be called a proper one much less full on laughing.

"Are you done documenting his details, Laela?" He asked after he had gotten over the bout of laughter that had gripped him.

"Y-yes, Sir." She stuttered slightly, nodding at the Mage boy who looked thoroughly unimpressed.

She didn't blame him though, he could never know the gravity of the feat he had just accomplished.

The chance that he would get sent to their regiment after the brief and brutal month of training was next to nonexistent, she would not hate to see him again though, if he didn't die at the training camps or at his first battle.

"Listen here boy, you seem like the type to defeat whatever came for you, be it a rock, a Siren or a soldier." Dritan said to him, voice gruff.

Ceraun stared unblinkingly across the space at the non-Mage official, making no move to prepare a response.

"Don't die in the first few months after you are shipped out to war and perhaps we will meet again."

Ceraun remained stoic, although he would not mind meeting the big, non-Mage soldier again. He particularly liked his sword, it would look better if the official were impaled on it though.

When he was allowed to leave, he turned around and did so, heading straight for his friends.

"There is something odd about that Mage." Laela muttered as all three watched the long haired boy quickly disappear from their line of sight.

"Indeed." Dritan and Ciel mumbled their assent, although it was for starkly different reasons.