Icarus arose early in the morning, he had slept surprisingly peacefully considering the day's events but shrugged it off and supposed he was just desensitized after his years of slavery.
Lyra slept quietly and Fred the beastman slept obnoxiously, snoring loudly.
Icarus chuckled and went to get fresh wood for the fire.
Minutes later he came back and saw that Lyra was up and Fred was half asleep but in the process of getting up.
Icarus placed the sticks on the fire and uttered a faint incantation that helped him visualize fire.
"Igni" Lyra stared as the fire burst forth she looked up at Icarus curiously.
"Can you teach me that?"
Icarus turned away from the smoldering fire and replied "I guess, I only know pretty basic stuff at the moment though."
Lyra laughed a little "what you did back at the town didn't seem basic at all."
Icarus thought she looked cute when she laughed and sighed "well then. We have to figure out what type of mage you are, if you are a visualizer you can just close your eyes, imagine an energy flowing out of you and-"
"Igni!" A flame burst from her hand, it was pretty big Icarus raised an eyebrow, it seemed she had copied his incantation and it had worked, this meant she probably was also a visualizer as it was rare incanters could copy a simple incantation.
She smiled and looked at him, waving the fire around.
"Now how do I do a bigger one? Come on! Tell me!"
Icarus sighed "if you have the mana for it, which I didn't for about 10 years, you can just cast your mana outside your body and imagine it being ignited and pushed forward."
Lyra looked confused "you trained for 10 years? How old are you anyway?"
Icarus swallowed dryly "uh... I'm 15 years old, I trained since I was five."
Icarus was 12 but doubted she would believe that he had been training since he was around 2 years old.
Lyra looked surprised "wow! You look like a kid but your nearly an adult! That's crazy!"
Icarus sighed "yeah yeah, just give the spell a try, don't try to make it as big as the one I used though."
Lyra held a hand out and opened her eyes, Icarus could perceive the mana flowing out from her hands and saw it form a ball about the size of a watermelon.
Black sparks dances around Lyra and the ball of mana burst into a ball of shadow.
Icarus' eyes widened 'this isn't fire, what on earth?'
She let the ball fly and it soared, blowing a hole in a boulder about 20 feet away.
She looks down at her hands "that wasn't fire. How do I use fire?"
Icarus frowned "wait, how did you do that anyway?"
She turned to him "I just let my mana form that ball, but something mad with turn into that.
Icarus frowned "give me some of your mana to analyse."
Lyra held out a hand and let out her mana Icarus held his own hand out, he could not quite make out other people's colour of mana, but his own was dark blue as it was released.
The two streams of mana mixed and the colour of Lyras mana became visible. Icarus squinted
"Light blue... And oh! What's this?" A strand of black mana was woven into her mana, Icarus separated the light blue and the black mana and held it in one hand.
He attempted to cast a fireball in both hands his own mana ignited into a golden-red ball of flames that roared in his hands, but Lyras mana burnt a dull yellow for a moment before being consumed by the dark thread of mana, it formed the same ball of shadow.
Icarus hurled both balls into the air, they collided and exploded with great force, rocking the area.
Icarus looked back to Lyra who was staring up in awe.
"Seems your mana has an impurity of some kind, the only kind of magic you'll be able to cast is dark magic."
Lyra looked back at him "what! How have you seen anything like that before?!"
Icarus shook his head "no. My experience is very limited, but don't worry, it still seemed very strong, it's possible it's a great natural talent that you should refine over time."
Lyra looked somewhat relieved but still seemed a little sad about the whole thing.
A huge yawn interrupted us as Fred rose to his feet.
"What are you two yappin' about? Can't a guy get some sleep?"
We both stared dim eyes at him and he looked back and forth "oh. Sorry, im a little grumpy in the morning ya know?"
Icarus stood up "no problem, we should leave now that we're all up, if we follow the road we can find our way to another port and hopefully a boat to the mainland."
The realms of Sangred were bordered by hundreds of islands, most of which were slave hubs and trader capitals, that had been taken to one of these when he had first been sold and was likely on one of them now, though until now he had supposed he might be in mainland Temploria right now.
The reason behind his sudden knowledge of his location flew over right at that moment.
High in the sky, above a distant mountain, a green dragon flew across the sky.
The weakest of the main dragon species these inhabited the islands off the coast of Temploria.
Icarus knew this from his childhood tutor, he also knew that such creatures would be killed if they were near any main population centers as they are far too dangerous.
Even the weakest of the dragon species was still far stronger then most humans.
Lyra stared at the creature "you know, they say the green dragons are the most spiteful, they are most hostile towards humans maybe do to them being the weakest of the strongest race."
The dragon soared, it's scaled glistened in the sun and it let out a roar that was loud from where they stood, moments later it passed over the mountain range and out of view.
Icarus turned to the pair of them "let's get going."
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.
.
Icarus casted magic, flames locked up from the ground and wrapped around the creature, it now had nowhere to move.
The large reptile snarled and growled, Icarus turned to Fred "now!" Fred bared his teeth and lunged with inhuman speed, his fist cocked back and slammed into the beast, knocking it Back.
Lyra chanted and held a hand up "Laaqce!" A spear of dark magic formed in her hand and she hurled it into the beast, it clearly pierced it and killed it.
The group had travelled for the better part of three days the road has lead up and away through hills and they grew closer to a mountain range on the opposite side the dragon had flown.
During this time, Icarus had helped Lyra refine her magic, she had explosive talent, and had learned to shape her magic among other things.
Fred had been a consistent help as a 'tank' during combat as well, he also hunted for the group occasionally which greatly reduced work for Icarus and Lyra.
They stopped to set up a camp, although the creature was monstrous, it would also be able to be eaten and passing it up for some small game meat just wouldn't be optimal.
The night passed and hours after they had gone to sleep, a loud sound awoke them, chattering of people, and the rolling of wheels.
Icarus stood up and readied to fight, Fred groggily rose to his feet, and Lyra backed off into the shadows.
The first wagon came over the hill, it was sealed and was being pulled by a large Oxen, it huffed and looked at him with an indignant expression.
On top of the carriage a shadowy figure was visible "oh? Hello there you lot! You're not... Bandits are you?"
Icarus stood up "no, just passing through."
The man sighed in relief "if that's the case, do you need a ride?"
Icarus read his face, he was a young man, black haired wearing all navy blue clothing, with an insignia on his chest "'MS?"
The merchant looked down at his shirt in response "yes. merchant Savoir. Our specific... Branding, if you will."
Icarus nodded "a ride would be great in that case, we can pay upon arrival."
The merchant clapped his hands "splendid! I am Herbert, if you need to call me anything."
Icarus frowned at his manor of speaking but shrugged and went into the back of his carriage, it was mostly empty apart from a few sealed crates and be waved the others to join him.
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.
.
2 days later, the carriages stopped, there were about ten of the carriages but oddly, they had not stopped one time to eat in the entire 2 day period.
Icarus stepped out and saw they had arrived at a small port, not a town or city, just a dock with a single, slightly large boat.
He turned to Face Herbert who had appeared behind him and sighed.
Herbert wore an uncanny smile on his face and Fred and Lyra backed up behind Icarus.
"So it has to be this way does it?"
Herbert tilted his head "whatever could you mean?"
Icarus grimaced and a ball of mana formed in his hand.
"Slave Trader."