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The room was dark, illuminated only by candlelight. A hunched over figure sat in a wooden chair, pouring through the pages of a textbook. Describing this textbook as 'thick' would be like describing a particular blade of grass as 'green'--it was a common trait among all the books in the room. In fact, there were books everywhere; one couldn’t take three steps without tripping over some form of literature, fiction or nonfiction. Most of them would be of the nonfiction variety, titles including Affinities and You; History of the World: The Legendary Gemstones; Sniping Basics; Intermediate Sniping; Advanced Sniping Tactics, and so on. Interrupting all the books were spare bullet casings and pages torn out from books. Were they important? Possibly, despite being organized as well as a pile of leaves.

The young woman was a Creaden, a species known for squirrel-like tails and pointy ears. Brown fur covered her entire body, as well as her longer than average tail. On top of her head were perky ears, shaped like slightly inflated triangles. Darker brown hair lay between those ears, falling only to about shoulder length. Her amber eyes were buried in her book, scanning the pages and text as intensely as they could. Despite it being well past midnight, she wore her usual daytime clothes. Pajamas were overrated,
she thought.

"What’s the last two...?” She thought to herself.

“Tick and tock.” A voice called from the doorway.

The book-loving young woman looked up ahead of her. "What?"

"It's three in the morning. Tick tock.”

“Dad, please. I have to study this. I still can’t believe this isn’t memorized yet...” Yori trailed off, leaning back in her chair with a sigh of frustration. She let go of the book.

"In all seriousness, though, it's energy and spirit. Tick and tock was just a joke I was making."

Her dad was halfway through the door frame, leaning in and holding onto the knob with one hand. It was late at night, so he was wearing his pajamas: a loose shirt and even looser pants. A quick glance around the room told him everything he needed to know. Yori hadn't been making a lot of noise, but he knew she was still awake. Most would call this a lucky guess, but he called it dad instinct. Either that, or it had been a noticeable pattern in her behavior that lasted for years. He entered the room quietly, closing the door with great care not to wake his wife. Noticing there had been a spare chair, he grabbed it by the seat and pulled it up to her. As he sat down, he noticed the books sprawled out on her desk.

“Sweetie, you’ll do fine tomorrow. You need to rest. If you stay up all night studying, I guarantee you’ll end up sleeping through the entrance exam. How awkward would that be? You're taking your test, circling those, er, words or something, then all of a sudden bam! Asleep. Last thing you wanna do is drool on your exam, right?" Her dad stuck out a finger with his left hand and tapped her nose.

“I wasn’t planning on staying awake all night, just most of it.” She leaned forward again, shoving her nose past her father’s finger. Her nose then reset itself to its default position: in between pages. This was comfortable for her.

“Must you lean so close? You and I both know your eyesight is impeccable. Gods know we wouldn’t encourage your unusual sniping hobby if we didn’t think you could handle it.” Her dad smiled gently, putting his hands back at his side and leaning in closer to Yori.

“It’s just... studying these affinities is so difficult when you don’t have one. It’s kind of like a rock trying to study how to breathe. How come I can’t memorize all the eight elements of this world? You’d think I could at least get that down no problem, but I guess not. Not only that, but I still don’t know how they manifest! Like, they just manifest differently? Everyone that could get an affinity just has one at random and it can take any sort of shape or form? Like, umm...” Yori paused to think, pulling her nose out of her book and looking upward. “Like, if I had an earth affinity, I can’t do anything with earth, only something specific.” Yori said.

“That’s true,” he said.

“And, like, let’s say I could, uh, make stairs out of mud that could hold my weight or something. I couldn’t make a spear out of mud, could I?” Yori asked, glancing at her father.

“Probably not. Affinities are very specific. They tend only to have one use, you just have to be creative. Making stairs out of mud sounds lame, but if you can manipulate your environment in such a way that you’re always near mud, well you could do anything.”

“Okay... So let me make sure I remember all of the elements again. Fire, air, earth, water, space, time, spirit... and then energy?"

“Now you got it,” Her dad said, sitting up straight. “Just do that tomorrow and you’ll be golden.”

Yori smirked. “Is there really no other way of memorizing this easier? I mean, it’s a lot to take in, especially what you just told me. I remember it now, but what about later? What if I forget? What if I drool on my exam?” Yori asked as she turned to face her dad completely.

“Well, I had a similar problem when I was your age. Studying, I mean. Not drooling. That's gross. You see, I had a way of memorizing all of them. We Feasts! Water, earth, fire, energy, air, space, time, spirit! What do you think?”

“I think it's so lame I can't help but remember it.” Yori tried to hold back her laughter, but she couldn't. She began to smirk, and before long she was cracking up. It didn't take much for her dad to laugh either. Yori's smiling face was plenty for him. After the two shared a brief laugh, Yori started to turn her nose back into her book.

“You should really go to bed, Yori. It’s late and you’re clearly tired. Plus, your mother will kill me if she finds out I let you stay up all night. Again.” He said.

“But... but...” She didn't want to turn and face him again.

“Are you worried you’re going to fail?” He said.

“No, it’s not that...” She trailed off, looking away from him entirely..

“Are you upset you still don’t know what your affinity is supposed to be? You know, it's perfectly normal to be upset about that.” He comforted her.

Yori glanced upward, but not towards her dad. She stared straight ahead at the wall in front of her, swallowing uncomfortably. She began to speak. “Everyone I know has one. Even you and mom! Both with space affinities! You two can do amazing things that I can never do!” Yori’s book dropped to the ground with a loud thud.

“Yori...”

Yori stood up from her seat and faced her father. The chair had been knocked aside and fell over a small pile of books behind her, causing another loud thud. Any restraint Yori had was being drained slowly from her like a leaky faucet. And much like a leaky faucet, her eyes began to well up ever so slightly. Not wanting to cry in front of her dad, she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

“It’s not fair. I’m supposed to have one too, aren’t I? I did everything I could, but I still don’t have anything. No ‘We Feasts’ for me...” Just as quickly as she had risen, Yori had fallen. She grabbed her seat and sat back down.

These outbursts had never been unusual for her. Her father had remembered several incidents much like this one. Whenever he wanted to comfort her, he remembered something that made her happy. Usually, this would be her hobbies, which included the normal girly stuff, like sniping. He was never that familiar with how guns worked but was always interested to ask her. However, something told him this wouldn't calm her down so easily this time. Perhaps attacking the problem directly would work best?

“It’ll be alright. Listen, it takes some longer than others. You’re only 16. Your mother didn’t find hers until she was in her mid 20's.”

“But what if,” Yori sniffed, “what if I don’t ever find it? Am I going to grow up alone and unimportant? I don't wanna be like that...”

“You’re not any lesser for that,” he added. “You’ll still be you. And you’ll always be every bit as extraordinary as you are to me now. Affinities don't make anyone more special than they would be without one. It's just something extra, something nice to have. It doesn't define you. The only thing that can define you is yourself. Besides, you can only do the same party trick so many times before it gets old. That's all affinities are if you think about it.”

Yori let a tear trail down her cheek, quickly rubbing it away and hoping he didn’t notice. “Thanks, dad.” She said, turning to hug him. He, of course, embraced her in return. After a slightly longer than expected hug, her father stood up straight.

“Affinities are tricky,” he said. “I think you’ll have one. I think it’ll be really good, too. But more importantly...”

Yori's eyes followed her father as he walked over to the wall to her right. He grabbed her unloaded rifle from the mount and tossed it across the room to her. She caught it in both hands, finger off the trigger of course, even though it was unloaded.

“No matter what happens, you will still be exceptional. While it's not exactly conventional for young girls like yourself to be proficient sharpshooters, that's what makes you special. I don't know any teenagers that can shoot moving targets out of the sky without a scope. Yeah, it's kind of weird, but it's who you are. You are special, whether or not you have some weird power over one of those fundamental elements or not. You don’t have to be able to manipulate one of those We Feasts-”

“Can you not call it that?” She giggled.

“Alright. You may not be able to, say, command flame, or make mountains move, but you will still be able to overcome any obstacle thrown at you. Affinities are just means to an end. Are they nice? Of course. But they don’t define you. They are just an extension of your own capabilities.”

Yori's dad reached his hand out in front of him. His palm faced Yori and his fingers were outstretched. With a sudden downward swipe of his hand, the rifle in Yori's grasp was soon thrust away from her. The gun went flying towards him and he grabbed it effortlessly with his other hand in a little spectacle. After smirking, feeling all proud, he walked back over to the wall mount and return the rifle to its proper location.

“My space affinity is something else, alright. Being able to grab objects from across the room with a swipe of the hand... They should make a novel about me! I'll call it... 'The Handy Man'!” He stared at his left hand, still facing the wall.

“I have to hand it to you, dad. That's pretty good.” Yori chuckled. It was too silly, even for her.

“I don’t have any doubts.” he turned back around and walked towards the door. “Now get some sleep, okay?”

“Alright, dad. Good night.”

“Good night, dear. And may the gods watch over you.” he opened and closed her door quietly.

Yori stood up and walked over to her drawer, pulling out her pajamas: a loose t-shirt and shorts. As she changed into them, Yori stared at the rifle on her wall and walked over to her bed, climbing inside and turning onto her side. Her hands curled in front of her, she glanced at both of them, wondering if there was some latent power inside of her. Something she didn’t know was there, just waiting to manifest. Something unique, something really special. Perhaps now was not the best time to dwell on it, but unfortunately for her, she had no say in when she could worry about herself.

“Someday...” she whispered to herself. “Maybe if I hang around Elric long enough, his earth affinity will rub off on me and I’ll get something cool.”

She closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep, inspired.

Meanwhile...

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A young Creaden sat outside on the grass in the early morning moonlight. The grass was wet with rain that fell not long ago, dampening his feet and bottom. He knew the rainwater would wet his shorts, but he didn't care. Knowing no one would bother him, he decided to sneak out of his home and away from his guardians to gaze upon the moonlight on a nearby hill. The grass was calming, as was the serenity of silence. Sitting with his knees bunched up against his chest, his hands wrapped around the front, he gazed skyward.

"I am certain Aurora would have loved this sight." The young man spoke to himself. "Mother was always fascinated by the beauty of the sky, so much so that she was named after the dawn itself. I wonder if she would scold me for coming out by myself so late."

He glanced all around and saw nobody around, nothing but a few trees and the grass around him. Closing his eyes, he began to imagine a moonlight picnic. This was something he had been told his mother always enjoyed having. It was hard imagining her appearance, but he knew a few key details. she was a little shorter than he was, her eyes were icy blue, and...

"Elric..." A faint voice called out.

Elric's eyes shot open and glanced all around. He didn't recognize the voice, but somehow it sounded familiar to him. He couldn't see anyone around him, however. Deciding not to worry about it too much, Elric closed his eyes again.

"Elric..." The voice called out again. This time, his eyes stayed shut, the voice was as clear as day now. He began to remember something, a memory returning to him like a bubble floating to the surface.

He was laying in bed, only five years of age. The memory seemed so vivid like he was living it all over again. His eyes were shut and he was trying to sleep when he heard his bedroom door open. Pretending to be asleep, Elric closed his eyes. The sound of approaching footsteps made him squeeze tighter. The footsteps stopped suddenly, and the next thing he felt was warm, wet lips on his forehead.

"Elric... Know that your father and I will always love you. You mean the world to us. Remember that, please." She cupped a hand against his cheek. Before long, she turned around and left his room, leaving him in peace.

It felt like an eternity ago, but still remembered it so vividly. He could almost feel her gentle hands on his face, her words echoing in his ears... He sighed and stood up straight, hands curled into fists at his sides and staring at the moon. The soft, gentle glow of the moon calmed his very soul. It was very pretty, he thought. He wondered if his aunt and uncle would come with him for a moonlight picnic sometime soon. With a long, deep breath, Elric felt his mind cleared. He turned around and walked down the hill once again.

"I will never forget, mother and father. Rest in peace."