Willbur turned around his head, a little startled that he hadn’t realized he had been watched. Out of the bushes came a youthful little child. He had an enthusiastic flair about him and Willbur immediately reassessed his first impression. It was a child, yes, but he was around 14 years old and therefore more of a teen than a child. Additionally he had bright red hair, and a prominent scar directly under his eyes and crossing his nose in a horizontal line. He had idiotically bright and complicated clothing that wouldn’t last in the woods for 2 days without a load of branches tangled up in it and on his right side was a one-handed sword that glimmered red. To top it all he had gloves, the left hand one where all of the fingers were cut off so you could see his nails and in the same general reddish colours as the rest of his outfit. His right hand was fully covered in a pitch-black-leather glove. Practically everything about the young boy screamed hero in the making and Willbur groaned internally.

Fate hadn’t even given him ONE damn day.

“And you might be?” he sighted turning fully around to become acquainted with his doom in form of this young boy.

“Pleased to meet you, my name is Core! I got lost somehow in these woods and heard you fighting and rushed to help you, but obviously you didn’t need any help!” the boy practically screamed. He was too loud. He had a bright grin, which made Wilbur want to laugh along with him and smash his teeth in at the same time. He just scowled at the boy while desperately thinking if there was any way to get rid of this little pest. Just then the stomach of the boy growled loudly and Core grinned embarrassed.

“You don’t happen to have any food?” he asked with the third best puppy eyes Willbur had ever seen. He sighted. There was no getting away from fate with this boy, he knew the signs when he saw them. Wordlessly he just turned around and went back to his little encampment. He didn’t even look if the boy would follow him, and just as he expected when he sat down at his fire not even a minute had passed before the boy sat down beside him. Willbur passed him something of the grilled boar he had made earlier and Core started digging in immediately like a starved beast.

“Sow phats wour wame?” he asked mouth still full chewing.

“I’m Willbur Longsword.” He simply answered.

“Nice to meet you Mr. Longsword!” the boy cheered after gulping down enough food in one bite to make people just watching him want to puke. Still that was a little different than what Willbur had expected. Normally when he said his name he heard exaggerated gasps, disbelieving snorts or just awestruck silence. The boy however didn’t seem to know him what in itself seemed like a small wonder. In fact Willbur actually didn’t really buy it.

“You have no idea who I am?” he asked curiously. Maybe he was some kind of child-assassin that wanted to lower his guard or a were-rabbit that had a village-quest to kill a famous hero.

“No, should I? Are you famous?” Core asked naively while gobbling up the rest of his meal.

Willbur smirked.

“Well you could say that.” He just replied and continued poking around in the fire with an old stick.

“You sure should be!” the boy sagely replied.

“That was out of this world. I’ve never seen anyone fight like that! And that sword is something else too! How can it stand your fire ability without burning to dust too?”

Willbur laughed.

“Boy the fire is not my ability. It’s just a feature of this sword. Its unique and named too.” Now the boy indeed seemed awestruck. Kind of funny considering the only reason Willbur still kept Hellfire around was that fate didn’t seem too motivated to steal it from him in some kind of epic questgiving way. It was a good sword but far from the legendary two-handed masterpieces he wielded in his prime.

But Core had just essentially confirmed what Willbur had known the moment he had come out of the bushes.

“So you are hero too boy? Fresh new ability? Fire related I guess?” Core spluttered the water he just drank all over himself.

“How do you know that?!” he blurted out and Willbur had to forcefully keep himself from rolling his eyes.

“Because I have an ability too. I happen to be a hero too, you just seem too dense to have noticed that.” Willbur replied.

Core now suddenly seemed enthusiastically animated.

“Wow so you are, like, my senior!” he exclaimed. Willbur raised his brows. It was seldom that someone assumed so naturally to be the chosen hero of destiny. Normally people would try to crawl up his ass by this point just to get a tiny little piece of wisdom or life-saving advice.

He just looked back into the fire and tried not to think too hard about the fact that this young boy would soon be dead, crushed by Willburs overwhelming weight of fate to add a tiny little piece to his legend. The boy of course knew nothing of that. He just continued blabbering about where he came from and that he’d be the greatest hero there ever was and so on. Without even properly listening Willbur learned that the boy currently was on his way to a neighbouring village to become a properly licenced hero and stuff and that he was searching for someone. This was actually the only time when he shut up for a brief period. Some kind of shitty dark past Willbur figured. He didn’t even care enough to ask. After the boy had talked even more and finally got the message that Willbur wanted to sleep now, he even thanked Willbur for not asking about his dark past and told him that he seemed grumpy at first but surely was a good person at heart. Willbur wished he could still belief that too.

The next morning the boy was already awake and training with his sword. Of course he was. Judging by the way he sweated profoundly it wasn’t a short time since he’d been awake either. He swung his sword like a madmen, like his life depended on it. Well actually he was probably right, so that might be indeed a good idea. However Willbur spotted several beginner mistakes just by watching for some seconds. If this boy should last by his side for even a week he needed to do something about that. Otherwise there would probably be an even more annoying teammate soon.

“Your footing is all messed up. Put your dominant foot on the ground. If you are fighting humans put it slightly back, so you can strike forward and confuse the enemy about your intentions. Also don’t just strike from up to down, do a stabbing motion. Most people can’t do shit against stabbing and if you use that fire ability of yours, they will probably start panicking if they start burning, even if its just a shallow wound. If you fight against armoured enemies attack the legs. They are usually slow.” Willbur commented. Core glanced in his direction and smiled thankfully. He then started to try to integrate Willburs comments in his training. Quick learner it seemed. At least he wouldn’t have any fight for dominance in his new group. At least not with that guy there would probably be some more people around soon.

Willbur started packing his stuff together and chose a direction at random and started walking. Core soon followed.

“Where are we going?” he asked breathing still a bit heavy from his workout.

“I have no idea.” Willbur replied.

“Well if you don’t mind, I have to go to Lumia city. It’s in that direction anyway. You can tag along.” He proposed. Willbur just snorted. As if he’d tag along with him. The boy had it all backwards. On the other hand he refused to change his direction simply out of spite and it was another little nudge of fate that his next quest would probably be related to this boy.

They walked in silence, Core humming an upbeat tune to himself and already annoying Willbur. After some time it seemed Core wanted to do conversation again.

“So what is your ability? Is it strong?” he asked. Willbur just shrugged.

“I guess. Haven’t used it in the last 6 years.” That was true. However the reason was rather that he just didn’t really need it anymore. Most enemies weren’t a challenge anyway and it was a long time ago that he had to give his all to beat someone. In fact his ability was extraordinary strong. But why should he tell the boy when he would likely be dead before he ever saw it in action.

“Mine is super strong. I called it heart of fire! I can set aflame everything I want, I just have to touch it.” He bragged. Willbur glanced at Cores hands again. So that was the reason his lefthand gloves had their fingers cut off. That meant his right hand with the full on glove was probably an even stronger variant of the fire attack, but also one Core wasn’t confident in controlling yet. So he had a lot of potential. Of course he had a lot of potential. Maybe he would be one of those guys he would actually feel a little bit sad about when they ultimately died. Maybe the boy would even survive and start his own quest before he was swallowed by Willburs fate. Like it or not, he better got used to the cheery boy.

“So the reddish gleam on your sword is your ability and not a feature of your sword?” he asked.

“Haha no. This is just a sword the smith gifted me after I annoyed him forever. It’s awesome, but nothing magic or unique like yours.”

Willbur nodded. The problem was, if he got a companion with this much potential, shit was going to get rough. He better switch to a two-handed as soon as he could get his hands on one. Also it was painfully obvious how good of a match his sword was with the boys ability.

“Lets swap.” He simply ordered and held his Hellfire to the boy. He didn’t need the fire ability of the sword to win his fights till they reached town and the boy had to learn to get used to the new sword. The sooner he started, the more likely he would survive their first serious encounter.

“Woah you for real? That sword must be like super expensive!” Core shouted out.

“Its not a gift. I loan it to you. I want it back at some point.” Willbur said. >When you’re dead.

“You’re a real softie at heart eh? Thanks!” He took Hellfire and gave Willbur his old sword. Willbur inspected it for any hidden features. It really was a normal sword; however it was of master class quality. He didn’t know what kind of smith gave an item like that away, but he sure hadn’t disliked Core. Willbur also felt that it was a rather old sword. Maybe an inheritance and the smith had no sons? He liked it. It was just what it was supposed to be, a simple but exquisite instrument for getting the job done. Core already fumbled with Hellfire and exclaimed an exited shout when he produced a little jet of flame upwards that scorched his eyebrows.

“You have to synchronize your ability with that sword. Your fire ability will enhance its natural abilities, so you need to be a little more careful with it.” Willbur advised. A second jet of flame scorched the boys nostrils and he coughed violently. Willbur just sighted. This was going to be a long little trip.