Waking to the sound of screaming and crackling embers isn’t the best way to start your night, but for Shayman this is the start of his journey.

Stirring from his sleep, Shayman gazed out the window where his sapphire eyes reflected the burning and destruction of his village. He was startled when his parents shoved open the door and started yelling, “Shayman, hurry we need to get out of here.”
As they were running down the stairs, Shayman caught a glimpse of their front door opening and was paralyzed with fear when a man in dark armor walked into their home, sword gleaming with blood. Shayman’s father held out his hand and ice crystals started to form in the air until the doorway was completely enclosed in ice. Shayman’s parents then told Shayman to run, as the ice was shattered by the sharp metal boot of the soldier. Escaping through the backdoor of the house, Shayman began running through the woods in the dead of night, dazed and confused about what was happening. From the corner of his eye Shayman caught a glimpse of another soldier on horseback as he crashed to the ground and blackness consumed his vision.

3 Years Prior

Shayman had lived in a small village with his two friends, Wenry and Lee. This village was located in the eastern part of the Mystik Wood backed by a cliff that provided the village shelter from harsh storms and cover from outsiders. In this land there are people gifted with the ability to control the elements of nature. To harness and control these gifts can be difficult to some or it can come naturally. Shayman has been blessed with the element of ice, Wenry is gifted with fire and Lee with wind. Not all people are gifted, and for those who were, they had to do special training to learn how to control their gifts. Shayman and his friends were lucky to be born in this village of Esterwood because most elementalists are sent to join the army of the Emperor corresponding with their element, but since they are the only elementalists in the village, the village holds them dearly, more like prized possessions rather than items of war. Continuing on the point of control, here is the story of Shayman’s incident, the fateful day that everyone wished had never come. One day, when Shayman was going to a normal school, he had multiple kids picking on him for being useless to the village because all the others were stronger and could manage their work by themselves. On this day a kid named Marcus pushed Shayman to his limits by shoving and teasing him when no one was around….his powers awakened. The boy stood mid-punch in front of Shayman, frozen solid. Everyone wanted Shayman out of the village. No one felt sorrow for him because they could never imagine the extent of his accident for it was never in his control. They wanted exiled forever because of the danger he presented the village, but no one in the village could quarrel with Shayman for his instinct of self defense. No one wanted to be his friend, no one wanted to be his enemy, until he met Wenry and Lee.

One day, doing his chores Shayman was approached by a girl with red, almost golden hair and eyes that seemed to radiate heat. “Hi,” she said…Shayman wasn’t used to people greeting him. “My names Wenry and this is Lee.”
Standing farther behind Wenry was a boy about the same height as Shayman with dark hair and dark green eyes. “Hi, nice to meet you,” said Lee.
Behind Lee came a taller man who went straight over to Shayman and started shaking his hand and said, “Hello there young man, we’ll be training you to help you control your elemental abilities.”
Wenry, adding the details, said, “We’ll be with you over the course of this coming year to help you control your element throughout the seasons.”
Lee said “and if you would need any help we’ll be staying in the local inn”.
“Umm…sure,” said Shayman, “but…how did you find me?”
“Well, you see…we’re actually travelers that find and help elementalists to better their power and when we stopped by and asked the mayor he told us all about you,” said Wenry.
Shayman’s face filled with heat because he feared they knew about the incident. The professor said, “It’s ok, almost all elementalists don’t have control over their power when it awakens.”
Shayman ran…all the way across the village and a mile into the Magik Wood where he would stay in his secret cave, alone in isolation. “How could they?” he thought, out of the few people he trusted and kept himself to, the mayor, a person he barely knew had brought it out into the open. He never wanted that to happen, he couldn’t control the situation, He never wanted the news of his incident to get out. It all happened so fast that he barely remembered, but the village still wanted to shame him for it.
It was dark now and a light appeared on the opposite side of the ice and a hole melted in the ice and eventually the whole piece was gone.
“How did you find me?” he asked.
Wenry appeared, “Well, your wall of ice is like a giant mirror reflecting the light of the village, and I happened to catch a glimpse of the light while I was looking into the woods, so I came and checked it out.”
“Can we come in?” asked Lee.
“Sure….this is my hideout, I come here to get away from the village.”
“It’s really nice in here, almost like it has air conditioning.” There they talked for the rest of the night, as friends, talking of their troubles, adventures, good times, and how thankful they were to be meeting each other. “It’s a funny thing, the meeting of friends sometimes you can’t remember your life without them.”

As Shayman awoke he was filled with fear and then realized his friends were with him but as he turned to where his village once was he was filled with despair. “What happened to the village?”
“It was in the path of an army, and they showed mercy to nothing.” said Wenry, the fire of her eyes being extinguished by tears.
“My parents……” said Shayman in disbelief.
“Shayman, I’m sorry but everyone’s gone, we’ve checked the entire village but no one was left” said Lee.
“What do we do now?”asked Shayman
“We take what our teacher has given us, and we fight.” said Wenry, eyes re-ignited with rage. “It is our only choice, our only chance of survival.” They set up camp for the night and they would set off in the morning. For what they didn’t know.