Hyro’s Mother, Bertrude Selk, and his Father, Sylvin Selk, did as the doctor suggested, they fled. They did not have many possessions which made traveling easy, luckily while their spells are weak Sylvin has the ability to locate water and other survival based abilities. His abilities are why they were able to survive being outcasts and with so little, there are not many jobs that need that skill set, not anymore anyway, and Sylvin never had the heart or build to want to try the adventuring lifestyle out. Bertrude did have minor enhancement abilities, able to strengthen metal. She worked for the master smiths’ apprentice’s before Leaving Hazen, her biggest downside is none of her spells added permanent effects, they were all temporary. Still, they made their way from Hazen opposite from Ryze, traveling south for many moons, doing their best to stay on the safe main roads, passing many small towns and villages along the way. Finally they reached the southern coast, well out of the Ryze territory, to their new home, the port village of Aquarine.

  Aquarine was an independent village, as many port villages were, it made for easier and more reliable importing and exporting of goods. Of course they made trade deals and even paid some taxes to neighboring capitols for protection and other services, but they had their own government not ruled over by any major nation, perfect for raising a newborn baby that shouldn’t have been allowed to live. Aquarine also has the advantage of being surrounded by forests, extra protection but forests also hold their own dangers. There are two safe passages out of and into the village, the northern passage the Selks came in on and the sea which bordered the whole southern border of Aquarine. The less dense forest to the east also held the closest Adventuring School for at least a week's travel, Terraqua academy. Much of the basic knowledge one needs to know is taught from the family members, then on the fourteenth birthday, children in the land of Orabis, what the locals call their world, come of age and choose their path from the destinies assigned to them at birth. Each child is then either entered into schooling, placed with a master or trainer, or are put immediately to work depending on each specific destiny. Bertrude, for instance, started her training under a master smith for two years before finding her own employment, Sylvin on the other hand was put right into the role of gathering food for a local merchant. Hyro grew up like many other children, his parents taught him the ways of the world, the ways of survival. He was also taught to constantly hide his hands the best he could. Wearing gloves or covers would give him away so he was taught other methods, sleight of hand, distraction, anything and everything to keep him unnoticed.

  Throughout most of his formative years Hyro did not socialize with many people outside of his immediate family. His mother was over protective, which made sense given the situation surrounding his birth. His father on the other hand knew Hyro was going to have to be as strong as possible to survive his destiny and did everything he could to teach and prepare his son. Bertrude eventually found a job similar to what she had in Hazen, assistant to a blacksmiths’ apprentice, not the most glamorous of jobs but it was something, Sylvin was only able to find work as a dockworker, loading and unloading ships, grueling work but he needed to do something. Life seemed to go well enough for many years, but then came the day the whole family was dreading. Hyro would be turning fourteen in just one week's time, and with Adventuring being the only destiny available to him, he will start school at Terraqua, that is, if they will have him.

  The biggest issue with choosing Adventuring as your destiny is that usually it is reserved for the cream of the crop. While anyone can technically become an adventurer it is an extremely dangerous path, adventurers’ need the most training and guidance of any path because they have to be able to handle any situation on their own or in their team set. By law adventuring squads have to be from one to four people for easier traveling and exploring, and so one group does not become too powerful. Not many are brave enough or skilled enough to explore solo but it has happened, those who succeed at soloing usually become legends in their own right. Adventuring has the highest number of casualties, especially with younger members, all of this danger does come with a good bit of notoriety however. Being an adventurer grants you access to most towns and locations, passing adventuring school proves you can handle the world so no borders or guards usually stop a full adventurer on their path, at least not for long. Adventurers abide by their own laws, no matter which school they graduate from, Adventures are their own governing body, granted to each adventurer from the high council of adventures. Because of all the difficulties and rewards granted to an adventurer, most schools have a very rigorous admission process and only the most naturally talented or best spell sets are granted admission, this posed a problem for Hyro.

  Luckily for Hyro, after you are born until your coming of age, not many people pay attention to your hands or feet lines, they just go off of what family and the birth papers say, and he had his sleight of hand training. Unluckily for him, there is an ability aptitude test for adventuring school. Hyro is also not the most fit or bulky, due to his heritage he is kind of a mixed bag, he is slender like an elf, not as tall as an elf or most humans though, closer to his mothers five foot height so far. His ears only have the slightest point to them unnoticeable by most unless under close observation and he usually tries to hide it under his curly black hair. Hyro also has a rare condition, again most likely due to his heritage, Heterochromia iridum, his right eye is the grayish blue of his father, and his left eye the sparkling green of his mother. None of those traits will be able to help him get into adventuring school however. Since he turned ten and was able to start understanding his destiny and the complications that come with it, Hyro, started teaching himself a form of magic, not the kind that everyone else has access to, he learned to use his sleight of hand to do tricks, things to make it look like he can do more than he really can. He also learned some alchemy on his own just by trial and error, despite his parents warning him of the dangers, and despite some... fiery outcomes. Hyro would forage the nearby forest every chance he got for anything that he could use for his alchemical experiments. Hyro hoped that mixing those two skills he may be able to sneak his way passed the initial tests, but only time would tell.

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  Despite not having real magic, or perhaps because of it, Hyro studied anything and everything he could since he was old enough to read. One of the things he loved to read up on was what normal people were able to do. There were many books free to the public on hand lines and the ability each one had, many things, even small, could change a line's power. How long it was, when and if it curved, if multiple lines connected, there were so many possibilities it was overwhelming to most, but, Hyro drank it all in. Hyro even read of some people who were able to still use magic even after serious scarring or amputation, either only using lines on their feet or simply remembering their own hand patterns and simply tracing where the lines used to be. Of course this led to a time where Hyro was overly hopeful and tried to use many different types of magic tracing where he would ‘imagine’ lines, he must have tried millions of combinations, unfortunately nothing ever came of this. To actually use magic there were two parts needed, one had to have the necessary line available and know the word of power to activate the magic. Each spell, after being used, had a cool down where the line would disappear and reform when it was ready again. For most people remembering words of power was not too hard since most people only had a select amount of powers, usually the same on each hand and each foot. For Hyro, there were times he thought his head was going to explode with knowledge because he wanted, and needed to know EVERYTHING. If he, by some grace of the Gods, managed to become an adventurer he needed to know what each word of power could do to know what to expect from his possible adversaries, he thought of it simply as survival preparation.

  Hyro had two weeks left to prepare for admission to Terraqua academy, he would be turning fourteen in a week, but the next entrance exam, held three times a year, was a week after that. He used all the time he could to come up with a plan, and after much deliberation, he thought he may actually have a shot. He knew from his research that the entrance exam had three parts, Physical examination, Mental evaluation in the form of a written test and a tournament between all applicants. Hyro did not fear the mental evaluation, it was the other two parts that would pose an issue, especially since there was no real age requirement to become an adventurer. Yes, most tried to gain access as soon as possible to allow for the most training time and most time to grow but this was not always the case so he could be up against anything. For the tournament he really put his alchemy to good use, knowing that there were common spells for fire and acid attacks he put most of his time and resources in making miniature vials of his own versions of a fire spell and an acid-like poison spell. They would not be the most powerful but the school had almost every weapon available for use as well so he thought with enough vials and a decent longsword that he may just make it. The vials were easily hidden in a handmade compartment in his cloak, his parents showed him to do simple sewing from a young age since they made most of their own clothes. He had much of the knowledge on how to wield and use a sword, and had some muscle behind him, but rarely used one, so that was his biggest focus in the two weeks, hitting trees mostly, he practiced as much as he could with a rusty old longsword his mother brought home one day. The physical examination was his biggest concern now.

  His fourteenth birthday came and passed without much commotion, no one really wanted to celebrate what could possibly be Hyros last birthday. The day after he was hit with what he thought at the time, was a brilliant idea, and it possibly might give him what he needs to pass the physical examination, as long as they did not employ someone who could read or sense a person's magical aptitude. When both of his parents were out at work so that no one could stop him, Hyro went outside and made a small campfire.

  After the embers were roaring hot, he grabbed a burning torch sized log, and before he could talk himself out of it, wrapped both hands over the burning hot flames. The pain was more than anything he felt in his short life, but he could not stop there, fighting through the pain he took his already bare feet and did a similar process, stepping on the fire. The pain was so much for his young body but he fought it until he knew the scarring would be enough to hide his hands and feet. Just like he read in the book before, he would claim to be able to use his magic lines even with burns and scar marks on his hands and feet. He knew it would eventually heal, he just needed it to be bad enough in six days time when the examination came. Once he believed the burns were deep enough he drenched his hands and feet in a small nearby river and almost immediately passed out from the pain with a slight grin on his face. His mother came home first and when she saw the smoke from the fizzled out fire and saw her baby boy she had a mix of emotions, how could such a smart boy do something so stupid, she was worried more than anything though. She picked him up and took him inside right away and wrapped his hands with spare cloth. When his father came home Hyro was still passed out but Sylvin knew what Hyro was trying to accomplish, and while he wished Hyro did it in a more, safe way, with him around, Sylvin felt a small rush of pride, his son may just have what it takes to make it in this world.