I was no longer tied up. Over the last few days, I had negotiated with the men that had captured me. I had yet to see the actual leader of this group of men and had only seen Boss Man, who wasn't the boss, but who cares that's what his name was now.

What did I negotiate you ask? It was simple really and sounded like a good way to relieve my boredom so I had agreed easily.

I was to help them test out the so-called Berserkers that had foiled my rescue. I don't know why they wanted me to help with this, and Boss Man even didn't know why his master wanted me either, but it was fine by me, however; I made it a point that Perrinu and Helnion wouldn't be injured or targeted. To which they agreed but made no promises if they got too close to the Berserkers.

I would soon be free from this place if Boss Man's master kept his promise and took me back to Calorin. I knew Perrinu would probably hate me for doing this, but this place was so boring that her anger was worth it to me. I was also still having those dreams about my childhood and I would be glad to have those gone too and if all went as planned I would only have to endure them for one or two more nights.

I was getting tired so as soon as Boss Man let me go for the day so I fell asleep. I still hadn't figured out why I had went so long getting no sleep and now I did, but that was a question for another day. For now, I just had to endure another night of dreams about my past.

As my dreams had come closer to the present, they had become longer and the time between memories was becoming much closer together. The images had also become clearer and occasionally I could hear what was going on. I had also heard bits and pieces of what my past self was thinking.

The memory I found myself looking at was of a scene of me in my first year of high school. I was in the classroom of my next class studying. Most of the other students were busy socializing and other such things that high school kids did during break.

Just then a rowdy bunch of boys entered the room. I watched as they goofed around and acted stupid and I did my best to ignore them.

As the time for the next class drew near, and the boys continued on I felt more and more annoyed and my expression went from emotionless to slightly irritated and then to strained.

Fortunately for them and me, I have always had good control of my emotions and I didn't snap at them.

The boys saw that too and one of them walked over to me, “Are we botherin' ya?”

I looked up from my book and politely said, “I would appreciate it if you would be a little quieter.”

He said my name, “Ya should open up a little and at least have a little fun. Studyin' all the time gets borin' don't it?”

“Perhaps, but playing all the time accomplishes nothing and making noise will not help my grades or my chances of getting into a university.”

“Come on studyin' is good an' all but you should enjoy life.”

“I happen to enjoy learning, and it is certainly more useful than playing all day.”

The chime for class started to go off.

“Ya used to be so much more fun when we were kids,” The boy says before leaving to take his seat.

I sighed and turned back to my books since the teacher hadn't arrived yet.

The scene changed.

I was now at home. My mother, my older sister, my little brother, and I were in the living room. My sister and I had just received our report cards and both of us had gotten straight A's.

“I'm so proud of you two,” My mother said happily.

“Wow. All A's again,” said my little brother in awe. “I'm going to do my best to catch up to you two.”

My poor brother. I don't know what it was like to have two genius older sisters as an example to follow. He by no means was dumb, but because he hadn't gotten all A's like me and my sister, despite getting mostly A's and B's, I could tell sometimes that he cared that he wasn't at the point we were at his age.

Another scene change.

It was my sister's graduation. As a testament to how hard she had worked, she had graduated a year early, though to my pleasure she only got salutatorian. This meant I had a chance to beat her. If I could get valedictorian and be the top of my class, it meant that maybe I was better than my sister.

These years in schooling I had done my best to do better than my sister. I had taken all the hardest classes, studied late into the night, and had received tutoring on weekends.

Just like my sister.

My sister was just as competitive as I was and was doing her best to stay ahead of me. As it turned out we were both pretty equal, but an opportunity had just opened up for me to pass her.

The scene jumped again.

The next few scenes went by quickly. They were also some of my most regrettable memories.

Many of these bad memories were of how I treated my brother. While we did play a lot as kids, it was only because my sister had focused more of her time on school and friends as did I when I got older.

It's kind of sad. While at first, I was more than happy to have him as my playmate over time I became bored with playing with him. The reason was that he was not because he was unathletic, but because he wasn't able to keep up with me so I ended up becoming bored with him and eventually started to ignore him.

Unfortunately, these memories were not the ones I regretted the most. While I had stopped playing with him, it had just opened an opportunity for him to get more friends, which he did. He was sad that I had stopped playing with him, but he had moved on.

The bad memories were when he aspired to catch up with his sisters academically. I guess seeing my older sister graduate so high in her class and me probably soon to follow made him not want to get left behind. Since my sister was busy getting ready for college, he came to me. Sadly, I told him I didn't have time to help him and that even if I did, he wouldn't match up to me or my sister. He just wasn't capable.

Despite this, he tried to well in school. Over the next year, his grades improved but when he showed them to me to prove that he could do better I scoffed at the one B+ and A- and left. I don't know what the look on his face was because my dreams only showed me things from my perspective, but it probably wasn't good.

The scenes jumped a few more times. Most of them were just more memories of my high school life and I soon neared my graduation. As I went farther and farther on I saw myself care less and less about people. I had no friends, nor did I want any. I never spent time with my family and when I found myself with free time I read in my room.

When my sister left for college, I cared less and less about our "competition." Why did it matter how I looked to other people? Would it change anything if I was the top of my class?

In my senior year, I tried less hard to get the top spot. I still got all A's, my pride wouldn't allow anything less, but I stopped doing the things that would put me ahead of the others. I had gotten a full ride scholarship at a good college so why work harder than I had to?

I think my brother took it harder than I did when I failed to even get salutatorian. Despite all the times I had ignored him, he was proud to have sisters that were among the best of their grade. Or maybe he was sad because he knew what I was capable of and hadn't taken advantage of all my abilities?

As the scenes jumped, I knew that they would near the end as I found myself at college. It would be my first and last year. It was an unremarkable year at that.

When I found myself home for summer after that year…

My head started to hurt. The dream stalled and began to fade in and out and my headache became steadily worse. As this happened, I realized one thing. I didn't remember anything about this summer. Not that I didn't want to, I just couldn't.

Had this been when I came to Calorin? I couldn't remember. I just knew that something important happened here. It was as if there was a barrier keeping me away.

I woke up with a headache. It wasn't as bad as the one I had after I had hit my head, but I still would rather not have one. So, in hopes of something to distract me from my headache and the memories my dreams had brought up, I got up and went to look for Boss Man.

"Salis!" Boss Man shouted to me as he saw me coming. "The Master has told me it is about time to attack. He said the Berserkers are ready to go and that we are waiting for your magic to be at a good place, whatever he means by that."

I knew perfectly well what Boss Man's master meant by my magic being at a good place. What scared me was that his master knew about my inability to control my magic power.

I decided that the question could wait for later and raised my index finger. I soon had a decent-sized flame being projected a few centimeters above my fingertip. It was good timing as my power was at a place where I could fight with it effectively. Thankfully, my power seemed more stable here on Korron even if it never reached my peak capacity.

"I'm good," I told Boss Man, "But I want my weapons back."

"Right! Your weapons. They will be given to you just before the battle starts."

I wasn't as concerned about the bow, I could easily replace it. It was the sword I wanted back. Fighting was also much more enjoyable with a sword or pole ax than a bow.