silver bloods of the vast lands

I failed!!

1927!! The crowd roared as a kid stumbled through the finish line, removing the cloth covering his eyes he scanned through the other kids, searching for his friends to celebrate his victory.

"John", Ariana called out "you made it". She added.

"Of course I did", John replied with a happy smile.seeing both William and Derek, searching for Alex he asked.

"Where's Alex"

"He's not here", answered Derek with a wry smile.

"What!, How is that possible", John shouted with confusion.

He knew Alex, he was stronger than the rest of them, so hearing that Alex was not here left him dumbfounded,"something must be wrong",he said looking at the rest.

1952!!,the cheering of the crowd enters his ears as he turned facing the forest ' where the hell are you Alex ', William thought.

***

Beads of sweat filled his face as he pushed his body to the limits, Alex noticed two kids tackling each other at his front, he jumps over them, moving towards a bulky kid a few meters forward as he got closer the kid noticed him, he slows down tensed his body ready to give Alex a dangerous blow.

When Alex approached, he ducked avoiding the punch propelling his body upward, BAM! Alex knees collided with the kids jaws and blood and spittle flew out, with a few of his teeths.

Alex stops and stares at the boy whose consciousness was fading,"I'm sorry", he said and he began running, stepping out of the forest he saw the huge crowd and other kids running past the finish line

"1972" he heard as another kid crossed the finish line, he bust into a high speed racing past kids who were ahead of him closing to the finish line, he hears another number "1973", 1974, when he crossed the finish line, the crowd roared "1975", he lowered his head in dismay went to a corner, numb to the rest of the shouting and screaming of the crowd.

"Alex" he hears a whisper turning his head to look around he saw nobody, retracting his gaze, he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure behind a tree, squinting his eyes to get a better view, he noticed it was his father.

"Come" he heard his father's voice, turning around he noticed that the people around him heard nothing.

 He stood before his dad and looked at his dad's expressionless face.

"I.... I fai... l failed", Alex struggled to speak as tears filled his eyes, he looked down to avoid his father from seeing his face

"Son, a vital character of a warrior is never giving up, no matter the circumstance", Rhyss said at the  Alex

 "Now!, are you a warrior" Rhyss said.

"I AM", answered Alex with trembling voice, wiping his tears away,"I Am a warrior", he added, he had regained his confidence.

"Good, I knew you would never disappoint me" , Rhyss said as a smile blossomed on his face. he was satisfied with this son of his, diligent, understanding and very much smarter than kids his age, but his only 'flaw' was his cheerful attitude which wasn't supposed to be a flaw, but in this era it is.

"The awakening ceremony comes next, prepare yourself", Rhyss said and flashed away at an inhuman speed. With renewed confidence Alex walked towards the ellcrys

After that, the time for the awakening came as the two thousand chosen kids were instructed to enter the silver river which was at the back of the  ellcrys, they entered the river they sat cross-legged and closed their eyes

 When Alex sat in the river," he remembered the mocking look given to him by Arthur and some of the other kids when they saw him Ulrich and Max laughed at his failure, which he used as motivation he contacted the ellcrys and a circular symbol began forming at his right chest, lighting up the water in his surroundings, which made him the focus of everyone's attention as Alex is the first person to gain his totem. When the symbol formed completely, a light blue translucent lion appeared at his back

  Just then another lion appeared behind Arthur who was shocked to see Alex had awakend before him

"You awaken within fifteen minutes, new record, you have proven worthy to still be my opponent", Arthur said to Alex while he stepped out of the water.

Alex ignored him as the last time ended up disastrous while he waited for his friends to awaken,'an enhancement phantom huh, getting a multi elemental phantom would have been amazing and also shut everybody mouth, it would have been amazing to see Arthur and Ulrich stupid dumbfounded face', Alex thought fantasizing about Arthur face.

An uproar snapped him back to reality and he saw every one staring at a lion phantom with silver light revolving around it, the nearby water and stones at the river bed began to float moving around Derek and his phantom

"A rare phantom, it power is telekinisis and a radius of five meters at the beginning, this is great potential," the keeper spoke to an elder with a slim figure and short beard and brilliant eyes he seemed to be in his mid thirties.

Thora greene, the fourth elder of the council and the father of Derek Greene, a top level warrior of a rare phantom . He squinted his eyes pleased as his lips curled up

"Hump!, It is a good phantom but his body will natural be weaker then the others, getting close to him in battle would mean only one thing for him, death", said the fifth Elder, Philip felstead, also a top level warrior but with an enhancement phantom.

"You do know that elemental phantomy are one in a thousand but rare phantomy are one in ten thousand", Thora spoke calmly

"Oh, so why does the enclave of black bloods have more than five thousand rare phantom warrior, and that's only what they are showing",Philip ridiculed.

"I see your spies are doing their job well, let me ask you, how many rare phantom do we have in our clan" Thora questioned

"Wh.... what?", Philip voice was stuck in his throat.

  "Two, I am the first and my son has just awakend another, the black blood you mentioned are best elemental and rune force users in the vastlands,The VAST LANDS!!, they are not like all other blood clans, so how could you compare them to anybody", as Thora spoke his anger got higher and he shouted

"Sometimes I wonder how you became an Elder, because apart from your spies, You ARE USELESS !!".

"You!...., Philips eyes widened his face turned red with his body was shaking with anger

  BAM! He slammed his palms on his chair and it disentgeted into brown powder.

"Silence", Rhyss said with a low voice, he knew if he did not intervene it might bust into a fight.

"Yes cheiftian", both Thora and Philip answered while they glared at each other.

"Get me a chair", Philip said to a servant boy behind them.

"Yes elder", he answered while he hurried away, if he delayed he may become the Elder's subject of anger, 'or is it object',he wondered.

"I'm grateful to the keeper", said the seventh elder, he knew if it wasn't for the keepers force covering this place with a field, the whole ceremony would have ended, because if this two.

After the ceremony was over, the same silver warrior came in front of the two thousand awakend kids and said with an appreciative voice.

"You have done well, now go home and rest, you will be sent to the camp after a week".

As they were heading towards their carriage Alex spoke to Derek,"a rare phantom, wow ! I didn't know you had it in that tummy of yours",

  "What can I say, I knew I would be a grandmaster of telekinesis", Derek said smugly to his friends

"But I thought your dream was to be a great warrior" Alex exposed

  The other bust into laughter while Derek face turned red in embarrassment.

"I am sorry, but I am happy for you bro", Alex apologized, he was indeed happy for his friend.

"At least, we do not need an Archer in our squad, Derek can do ten times better", Ariana said with a smile, she instantly found a use for Derek's ability.

"Yes with Derek watching our back we can fight without watching our back and we can concentrate with the opponent in our sight" William said while nodding

"You only know how to fight, I am having thoughts about you as one of the brainy kids Ariana talked about", John said while said standing proudly to berate William

"What! did you say!!", screamed William

When John saw William eyes turning red, he turned and fled, not caring about the boisterous laughter behind him

"Oh! I almost forgot, Alex a city in any of the five kingdoms have about fifty thousand people minimum, but ours has a hundred and seventy thousand, even more but we still call it a town, do you have any reason to indicate why" asked Ariana

"Where did you see this?", Derek questioned.

"At the library", Ariana answered.

"What! How did you get into the library,I thought the book keeper said ' NO KIDS ALLOWED ', Alex said as he mimicked the bookkeepers voice.

"My uncle sneaked me in", Ariana answered nonchalantly,"so what is your answer", she added already impatient about answering all their questions.

"I am not sure, but I think it's because the council made us stay hidden for the purpose of avoiding some situations which I don't know, but making it a city is like incorporating us to the outside world, that's what I think, I don't know if it's true", Alex answered after a deep thought.

"I wonder how you are this smart", William said shocked at Alex analysis, the others nodded, including Ariana. She asked the question just to impress Alex as he was very smart, but she did not even imagine that he would answer it. As they arrived at their carriage, they bid each other farewell and went their ways.

When Alex was about to enter his carriage, he saw a quiet boy walking behind the second elder towards their own carriage, he muttered,"Asher was so different today, that's strange".