Denn felt warmth in his heart. When he'd been ill, this apprentice girl had been the one who'd taken care of his body.

Without saying a word, he leaned in to kiss Mailene. She let go of the basket she'd been stuffing and rested her back into the bale of clothes behind her, allowing him to lean in as her arms went around his neck to welcome him.

Just one year since he was finally able to walk, and he'd grown only mere inches. But the runt was handsome, and charming when they were alone.
So Mailene hadn't been averse to fooling around with him the first day that their bodies touched in the hut, while the rain fell outside.

Denn knew that this girl felt for him.
More than anyone in the world and perhaps even his parents. They didn't care about their son enough to stay, or take him along with them to the frontier after all.

Mailene was the only one who treated him like he was something, and priceless at that!

Since his birth, Denn had seen neither his father, nor mother. Only the dreary hut in one corner of the village's apothecary.

Until that one day when her airy figure and aura had breezed into his dark world, filled only with the sounds of pain and agony all around him.
As a fresh apprentice, she'd been eager to know who the boy her teacher always checked on every day, was.

Gentle and graceful, with an affinity for water idan, Mailene was the perfect material for a healer.

And the two had never let his physical constraints come between their friendship, once the two met, because they struck it off instantly.

Before two weeks were out, Mailene had taken over the changing of his bedclothes and the feeding of her friend.

Now, two years after he'd finally began to walk again, and his illness and wracking bouts all but washed from his system, those days were gradually becoming a fading memory as he finally began to take root in the sands.
But the bond they'd forged, the intimacy they both shared, it endured, and and had transformed into this.

Of course the taunting and name calling had come around to her as well, but because healers were a much coveted and treasured class of talents in this martial world, Mailene didn't get any more than hassled at the highest.

Denn leaned into his kiss, savoring his reward from a day well spent, taking those brutal blows on his frame with only that large heavy shield to protect him.
It did protect him, but it did more than that. It lent it's hard unyielding weight to blows meant to topple him and it's added weight over, and the 10 kilogram shield had no soft corners.

Pure volcan steel

It was the only thing that could deflect idan, and while he was grateful to not have to test the nasty effects of his clan mate's strikes and abilities, Denn liked to wonder if he couldn't have been spared the punishment that came with lugging around the shield to protect hinself, and to defend against attacks on all fronts.

He hated being bulwark. If not for anything, then feor the fact that it was unfair on him and his body, and it was just an excuse for the other kids to get off attacking real opponents, ones that could deal just as much damage to them back.

Everyday when he left the sand pits, it was with aching limbs and a battered bruised body. His shield did nothing to protect him from impact, only sharpness and the elements in the abilities thrown at him.

"You both have some nerve." A voice snorted from their surroundings, leaving them scrambling away from the other in panic as their eyes searched the quiet empty hut.

But it was quiet. And they were alone. Which meant it had come from the outside.
Denn burned with anger. This was something the innate spatial awareness ability would have prevented. And he'd recognize that voice anywhere.

It was none other than Ronju's. The man who oversaw and condoned all of Denn's suffering in the pits.

When his figure entered the hut, it was to find Denn standing in a rigid stance, hands up in the so familiar position of holding the shield up, unconsciously.

"You want to protect her?" It was mockery of his fate, the hand the heavens had chosen to deal him and the three of them knew it.

But while the world relied on might to survive and assert one's rights, Ronju still knew Mount Tai, and knew that the kid's background wasn't something a trainer in the family like himself could afford to offend.
Whether he liked it or not, the Rumi clan was still royalty, and he could only act within the confines of his authority.

"If I was a raging danbeast, you would both be dead. This boy..." He pointed a scathing finger at where Denn stood, Mailene behind him.

"You can save no one. You will protect no one, and you should not try to. Just focus on being better than the empty matchbox that you are now, Denn."
The words cut deep at him, and Denn raised his head defiantly to make sure that his displeasure was noted.

It was met with a massive foot slamming down on his defensive stance, sending Denn crashing to the ground in a grimacing heap.

"As I said," Ronju drew himself up with a deep gaze of contempt raging uninhibited in his eyes. "He cannot protect anyone healer, and no one will follow him.
I hope you learn to steer clear soon, for the bright future that you have."

Having said his piece, delivered and put the lowest of the rung in his place, Ronju walked out of the little hut with his nose in the air.