"Alright guys, and remember that whether you go into the workforce, college, or hunters society you are all going places." Mr. Rockback was addressing his class for the last time. After today all of the students would have graduated from high school and would be setting off towards their futures.
However, when he had said that they were all going places he was lying to them. One student in particular stood out. Drake Ironwood never did particularly great at school, except in history, which he excelled at, and he didn't develop his powers at thirteen like all of the other orphans did.
Mr. Rockback wasn't a regular history teacher. He worked at a school where almost all of the students were orphans. In the town of Ironwood stood the largest and most popular orphanage in the country. The reason being that unlike most small towns, which only had weak barriers to hold off monsters, Ironwood had a pretty powerful one. So it was a small enough town that if people from the cities left their kids here they wouldn't have to think about them and they would be safe.
As he was thinking he realized that he was staring at the boy and he stopped.
"Now, class will be up in five minutes anyway, so I'll let you all leave early. Have a nice summer."
As soon as the class heard that they cheered and poured out of the halls like a tidal wave of book bags and laughter. All except for Drake, who just grabbed his bag and casually strolled out, waving goodbye as he did.
Sigh, I really worry for that boy. Mr. Rockback just sat down and started on his end of the year paperwork.
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Drake walked slowly towards the orphanage. Unlike the other kids who were all either going to college or to the hunter's academy he had to buy a bus ticket and go to the city to look for work. He only had two weeks until his 18th birthday, when the orphanage would kick him out, to pack his stuff and start looking.
While the rest of the kids continued either home or back to the orphanage, Drake decided to take a little detour. He turned left into the park he was next to and started walking down one of the trails headed into the forest. He followed the winding trail, making occasional lefts and rights until he arrived at his destination. A beautiful cliff overlooking the ocean.
This cliff was one of the reasons that the town was considered as safe as it was. With an enchanted wall on three sides and a cliff face on the other it was almost impossible for monsters to attack their town. But Drake didn't care. This cliff was his happy place. He could always come out here and be alone. The town occasionally has earthquakes and most people steer clear of the cliffs just in case.
Looking out at the sparkling crystal waters Drake took a big breath and screamed. All that he had ever wanted to do was become a hunter, he trained for years as a child. He went running, bought books on martial arts and monster hunting, he even tried practicing with a knife from the kitchen until the caretakers found him and punished him. But in the end, he never awoke any powers. He had hoped that maybe he was one of the rare late bloomers, but that never happened any older than 16.
Now he just had to accept the fact that he was going to probably be a laborer for the rest of his life. Thinking about it, he imagined that there were probably hundreds of people just like him. Wishing they had abilities but stuck living a life they didn't choose just to survive.
Taking one more look and burning the image into his mind Drake got up to head to the orphanage. There's no point in delaying the inevitable, he thought. But as he was walking back the ground suddenly started to shake.
Realizing instantly that they were having an earthquake he started running towards the forest, hoping to get away from the cliff, but when he was half way there the ground beneath him gave out, and he fell.
Desperately, he grabbed at the walls trying to slow his fall. He managed to grab a pretty thick root and latch on, swinging him out a bit before it broke free and dropped him. He fell onto his back, knocking the wind out of him. As he sat there gasping, dirt was getting in his mouth. Finally, he caught his breath and he spit out the dirt.
As he stood up and tried to assess his injuries he noticed that he had fallen into a large cave. The only light source was the massive hole probably 30 feet above him. He was pretty much uninjured, having just some scrapes and a bit of bruising. Not worrying about being injured he started scanning the cave, hoping there might be another hole that he could crawl back out of. As he was looking around he spotted something that shocked him.
There was a house in the cave. A whole ass house. It was run down and falling apart but other than age it didn't look all that damaged. As he got closer he noticed something else. There was a skeleton in front of the house. With a heart stone in its chest.
Heart stones were the "cores" of humans. While monsters got their strength from spherical cores in their bodies , humans received their powers from a jagged crystal that encases their hearts. When a monster dies, it leaves behind the core for retrieval and it can be sold for decent money. But headstones were something else. While illegal to sell commercially, hunters who die in combat often have theirs turned into weapons and since Drake had found it he hoped he could sell it to the hunters for a nice chunk of change.
Excitedly, Drake rushed to the skeleton and, careful not to damage the skeleton, he grabbed the crystal. While alive these crystals encased people's hearts, but upon death they became solid as a rock, and as Drake was now realizing, surprisingly heavy. He started to walk back to the hole with his find, assuming that when he didn't make it home for dinner someone would come for him and see the hole. He also wanted to admire the stone in the light.
However, as he was walking his hand started to get warm where it was touching the heart stone. Confused Drake swapped it to his other hand and looked at the hot one, it was super red. Then his other hand began burning up. At this point he wanted to drop the crystal, but he couldn't. His hands were clenching on their own and he was unable to drop it. It kept getting hotter and hotter until the heart stone actually looked like it was melting. Drake watched as the heart stone slowly turned into liquid and soaked into his hands. When all of it was finally gone Drake had a moment of peace, before he passed out.
Drake woke up to a white ceiling and the sound of people talking behind a door. As he looked around he could see that he was in the hospital, but that wasn't all he could see. As he looked around the room he would sometimes see words floating above certain objects.
I'm crazy. He thought. I must have hit my head and now I'm seeing things. As he was thinking, the doctor had walked in and noticed he was awake.
"Oh good, you're finally awake." She said with a smile. " You gave your caretaker a scare when she saw you at the bottom of that hole. Luckily you only managed to get away with nothing but some low blood sugar and dehydration."
Drake couldn't believe it, he was certain that he had scraped up his arms and bruised at least his back. But then an idea popped into his head. The doctor had started typing on a laptop that she had brought so she wasn't paying attention. He looked at the iv drip in his arm and then at the bag hanging above him. When he focused on it more words appeared.
[water and dextrose solution]
He swallowed hard from the anxiety.
"Um, what is in my iv? If you don't mind me asking." Drake could practically hear his heart beat.
The doctor looked back at him and smiled again.
"Don't worry, it's nothing crazy. Just some water and dextrose to get your fluids and sugar up." She turned back to the laptop she was typing on.
Drake's guess had been correct. He wasn't crazy. He had an ability.