I grew up in the small town of Sarandra in the country of Heius, just a little south of the border with Zyoneth. It was a happy time, I had a good childhood with my mother and my sister around. I never actually knew my father. We didn't have a lot of extra things, but we were comfortable in general life.
I was ten when my talent for magic was first discovered.
I had a good friend by the name of Lenes. He and I were pretty much inseparable at the time. It was winter and we headed over to the nearby pond to slide around one afternoon. It had been a little warmer than usual of late, but that didn't concern us. We were, after all, only ten. We strode confidently out onto the ice, sliding around and pushing each other. The kind of thing one generally does as a child. He ran off ahead of me, half sliding, onto the center of the pond. He stood there with his eyes closed and his arms outstretched, mouth wide open trying to catch a snowflake or two. He started spinning around on the ice.
I, of course, in my youthful ignorance, was quite unconcerned by this. In fact, I was heading that way to join him as he did so. As I approached, I heard a tapping sound that was ever so slight. I strained to hear it, stopping in my tracks.
Tap...tap...tap....tap...
It was almost rhythmic. I thought perhaps it was water dripping onto the ice or something of that nature. I closed my eyes, listening still closer.
Tap...tap...tap...tap...
And it suddenly stopped. I frowned, opening my eyes a slit. I caught sight of Lenes, still blissfully unaware of any such noise, and still spinning with his eyes closed and his mouth open. I opened my eyes wider and noticed that there were little holes all around him in the ice, perhaps the size of a dowel rod.
“Lenes!” I called to him.
He stopped spinning, closed his mouth and then looked at me quizzically. I didn't know what to say to make him understand, so instead I ended up gesturing wildly to come back towards me. He took one step, just one, and suddenly, it started again, the noise, but louder and far more menacing.
THUMP...THUMP...THUMP...THUMP...
I took an involuntary step backwards. Lenes continued to happily amble towards me. I didn't understand it, did he not hear the noise? The kind of sound that makes you want to run far, far away?
I yelled at him again. “Lenes! RUN!”
I don't know how I managed to convince him without him hearing the sound, but the look in my eyes must have done something, because he started running towards me.
He had just about reached me when a large, strange-looking fish leaped out of the water, clouded eyes staring.
I managed to grab Lenes' hand and took off in the other direction. The fish continued to leap after us, thin, almost wirely fins flailing weirdly behind it. I knew, instinctively, that it must have made the small holes with those, ever so quietly, so the ice would crack and Lenes would fall beneath to be never seen again.
We ran off the ice and threw ourselves up and over a small embankment, hiding there breathlessly, until we thought it might be safe to look.
I peered over the age, there was nothing there. The ice wasn't even broken. Lenes and I looked at each other in silent astonishment.
“You saw that, right?” I asked him.
He nodded, wide-eyed.
We picked ourselves off and dusted off the snow as best we could and headed for home. We were mostly quiet along the way, when Lenes turned to me and asked;
“So...how DID you know it was coming?”
I shrugged. “I heard a tapping. Didn't you hear it?”
He slowly shook his head in disbelief. “No, I didn't hear a thing until you started yelling.” There was something different in his voice suddenly, like his view of me had changed. But I, being ten, thought nothing of it.