Chapter 3: Bound to Power pt.1
On a Friday, two weeks after their first day at the Bound Kingdom Adventurers Academy, it was Arcuate's birthday. For most normal kids, this would be an exciting time of year, but for Arcuate most holidays and special occasions like that were hell. His family berated him with insults about how he didn't have a number birthmark on his skin like the rest of his entire race. "Guys, I don't wanna go back home." He said to Dash and Karma while they were on their way back from school.
Most normal days, he'd be able to avoid his immediate family and whatnot because they train intensely most of the time for days on end just to increase their zeal and zest the tiniest bit, not to mention increasing their willpower through tests of endurance that seem almost impossible. Almost nobody in their clan actually worked, which was why they were poverty-struck. But when it was anybody's birthday in the clan, everybody had to stop in order to celebrate. Now, they didn't all celebrate together, the separate families would celebrate it apart. Nobody really knew why, it was just a tradition that nobody had really thought about.
"Why don't you wanna go home?" Dash asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Well, you know I'm a Dominoe right?" He asked Dashaun and Karma, he got a nod from both of them. "What's that got to do with you not wanting to go home?" Karma asked him. "Well, a racial trait that we Dominoe have is a birthmark under one of our eyes that looks like a number. Whatever number it is, that's the amount of times we'll escape death in our life." He explained, looking shameful as he stated this.
"If you hadn't noticed, I don't have a mark under either of my eyes, or anywhere else on my body for that matter. Everyone in my family, except for my grandparents, harass me about it every chance they get. Apparently, I only had one escape from death and used it just to be born." Arcuate explained to the two. "W-what? Why haven't we heard this happen before?" Karma asked Arc, seeming concerned. "Cause they're two faced. They want to seem like the family isn't practically dysfunctional." Arcuate said, seeming annoyed at the thought.
"Well there isn't really anywhere else we can go. We don't have money to do anything and our phones are set to sharing their locations." Dash pointed out as the three kept walking. "True, you'll just have to tough it out I guess." Karma added. Arcuate nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Hey, maybe you guys can come to the family celebration so that they're not mean?" Arcuate suggested. "Huh. Yeah, I guess we could do that. Why not?" Karma replied. The last thing he'd want was for his friend to feel bad on his birthday. "Hmm I can try and go too." Dash replied, giving Arcuate a gentle pat on the back.
After about fifteen minutes, the three Goldhart boys made it outside of the Kingdom. This was where they lived. The Goldhart clan had fallen on hard times financially and couldn't afford houses inside of the kingdom. So, they went to some wilderness which happened to be in front of a mountain and built three log cabins, one for each family that was part of the clan. They built a water wheel in a nearby river for their power and whatnot. Up the mountain was training grounds, with makeshift workout areas and leftover stumps from the trees to punch, kick, slash at, etc. It was a nice, peaceful looking area.
Upon entering Arcuate's family's log cabin, his Grandparents greeted him with a cupcake. Behind them were his parents and his older brother. They saw him and inhaled to say something about his lack of a birthmark, something overused and whatnot because there wasn't much original stuff they could think of at this point. Upon seeing that Dash and Karma were with him they began smiling along with his grandparents. "Hey guys! What are you doing here?" Arcuate's mom asked the two. "Oh, well uh we were wondering if we could celebrate Arc's birthday with you guys this year." Karma spoke up, giving them a charming smile.
"Well… we wanted to do more of a family thing this year, so unfortunately not. You know, money in the clan is tight so we couldn't afford enough food along with my dear Arcuate's present. Hopefully, next year we can have you though!" Arc's mom said gleefully. Arcuate sighed and went to sit down at the table with his cupcake. His parents had Arc's grandparents go into the kingdom to get his present. Little did they know though, the address was to a place irresistible to older folks. A game night at some bar that was doing trivia and bingo, meaning they likely wouldn't be back for a while.
That's when it began. His older brother started and his parents followed soon after. Saying hurtful things about his aspirations and whatnot. "Why do you even want to be an adventurer? You'll just die in the first life threatening situation. You had one chance to escape death and you used it to be born. Just being alive should be enough for you, why do you want to risk your life with that? You're stupid. Don't act like we don't know you and your little friends overall plan. It wont work, I know you don't have the willpower to make it happen." Arcuate teared up as he heard all of this. Something determined before he was even born was gonna make or break his entire life? That didn't seem fair in the slightest.
"W-why are you guys so mean to me… isn't your family supposed to believe in you? I know I can't escape death again and I don't mind that. I'm becoming an adventurer to save the clan.. But with members like you I might just change my mind." His brother's brows furrowed and he grabbed Arcuate by the neck, slamming him against the wall. "The reason we don't believe in you is because of this. If I wanted to end your life right now, I could. Your dreams wouldn't come true, and frankly I don't even think you even have a chance of getting this clan out of poverty. You're not some hero so quit acting like it. Morons like you are why we're poverty stricken in the first place." Tears rolled down Arc's cheeks. He knew this was true but he didn't want to face the gravity of the situation.
Arcuate grabbed one of his katanas from it's hilt on his side, Arc's brother blocked him from doing so, making Arcuate try the other one. Since his brother was overpowering both of his hands, he bashed his forehead head into his brother's lower jaw, busting his lip. This resulted in Arcuate's brother taking his hands off of Arcuate, allowing him to slip away and dart out of the house crying. His parents attempted chasing after him and they were catching up quickly. He had to do something, so he grabbed his katana's and started spinning them in opposite directions, he did this for a few seconds until kinetic energy began to crackle around it. This is what he wanted, and so, he tossed them at his parents, manipulating the kinetic energy using his zeal to make the katana's lock onto them. He could do this for about 10-20 seconds.
He continued to run before he settled down in the woods to catch his breath. He doubted his parents would chase him that far, so he sat down against a shady tree. The sun was setting and he had a bad feeling about going home. And then he blinked, upon opening his eyes again he was welcomed to the sight of the sun being down already and the full moon being up. "D-did I just fall asleep??" He asked himself, he was incredibly confused, before it started coming back to him. In reality he realized that he was mentally exhausted trying to process what had happened within maybe an hour. He also remembered a dream he had.
There was a tall man with wings and long white hair as well as strange markings all over his body, looking to be of Native American descent telling him that it would be fine and something great was to come. He had a very calming presence and Arcuate believed him when he said that it would be okay. He felt a sense of familiarity to this man despite never having met him in his life.
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