Michael don’t let go!

My grip was slipping…

Stifling back a hopeless laugh, I watched as my mate’s figure shrank until he became a speck in the dark abyss, and finally…

I woke up from my second nightmare this week and due to my infantile body’s reaction, my mother came rushing in to console her crying child. I am said child…

Not too long ago, more or less 3 years, I died. I don’t remember how nor do I know why. I can’t come to a reasonable explanation as to why anyone would want me dead, which leads me to believe that I died of some natural cause. Maybe God pitied me for dying in some sort of unfortunate way, and is rewarding me with this new life, a new life set in a less technologically advanced civilization judging by the torch lit rooms and straw beds.

The new life of an adult that has lost all dignity as the man that he once was, now reborn into this prison of flesh in which he can’t even control his emotions or bodily functions, nor remember the first three years of his new life thanks to infantile amnesia…

Hope is not lost though since, whoever or whatever put me into this new world, has graced me with a wonderful mother who comes running at even the slightest inconvenience. Glistening blonde hair, deep blue eyes adorned with long lashes and a perky nose, she was nothing short of beautiful, but despite her beauty I can only see her as a mother. Someone who radiates pure light. Someone I could not see my past self spend time with, to be quite frank.

My father, on the other hand, is someone who seems strong, not just physically but emotionally as well. His grayish-blue eyes, accompanied by his jet-black hair stained with gray streaks accentuated his stoic, deadpan expression, only showing compassion towards me and my mother. I mean, the happiest I’ve seen the man was when I took my first steps and fell flat on my ass…

Finally, there’s little old me, Kenny, of the Watkin family. Nothing in particular about me stands out as of yet other than my crimson red hair and piercing gray eyes. A rather handsome young man, if I do say so myself.

I slowly gained the ability to walk… again, and immediately scoured the house in search of books, maps and even brochures to try and figure out where on earth I was. My mother constantly intervening in my plans out of fear that I might hurt myself, yet I persisted. I searched wherever my grubby little hands could reach until I discovered my dad’s study.

Never in my previous life would I have thought that finding books could be this exciting, alas my monumental victory was short lived. I briefly looked through the pages trying to find pictures or maps, only to find a bunch of foreign letters that I couldn’t decipher. My search still paid off though.

My mother came across me holding one of the books and thought that I might perhaps have interest in it, so she started reading to me. I listened to the woman talk for a few minutes before falling into a coma and, fortunately, I didn’t have any bad dreams.

I woke up, presumably the next day, immediately reaching for the book on the bedside table.

To my surprise, I could now fully understand the words written on the first two pages of the book, along with a few other words in the rest of book…

Was I tired yesterday or am I still dreaming?

No, this cant be mere coincidence, it must have been because mo- that lady, read to me yesterday. Would I learn more of this language just by hearing it?

My hypothesis was correct. Over the next few weeks id let Violet read to me. I had discovered my parents’ names along with bits and pieces of information of this world from not just the books that she read to me, but also from the books that I had become able to read.

My parents are named Violet and Raymond. I refer to him as Ray since he’s picked up the habit of calling me Ken. We live just north of Patria, one of this country’s major cities, in a small village decorated with apartment sized homes, two stables for keeping horses, a small area dedicated to merchants and a city hall of sorts where the bigshots of the village, Ray included, would discuss village related things. No indication if I was still on earth though, or some far away planet in another galaxy.

My two most recent discoveries are the most notable though. First off, magic is something everyone in this world can use, and I mean real magic. Violet is able to utilize wind magic, being able to cast powerful wind currents and control the temperature of the wind and so on. Raymond is an earth type mage, being able to mold stone and dirt at his will and even propel it at devastating speeds at whatever he wills. As for me, I’m not able to utilize magic as of yet. The encyclopedia I found provided me with vague information on how magic worked, probably due to magic being common knowledge, or to deter children like me from fully grasping magic at too young an age. According to this book, mages are able to absorb mana into their core and then release it through parts of their body in the form of whatever elements the mage possessed, elements being wind, earth, fire and water which can then evolve into stronger elements depending on what the mage possessed e.g., fire type mages can eventually utilize lightning and earth type mages can manipulate certain metals.

Second, mages start to naturally absorb mana from birth, this is due to being in the mother’s womb where the unborn child absorbs mana with the child bearer which develops the infant’s core, and after birth the core is supposed to develop on its own, but at a considerably slower rate.

Could I accelerate this process?

Unfortunately, that’s all the book had to say about magic, but what also caught my attention was the fact that demi-humans existed in this world, basically half-human half-animal people. They don’t share a heavy resemblance with animals’ other than fangs and sometimes whiskers. My plans of finally seeing a real cat-girl, foiled…

The following days consisted of trying to find new books to read that could help me figure out where on earth I was, if I even was on earth, trying to use magic, eating, sleeping and the occasional market visit to get groceries. One day while Violet looked for flour, I noticed there was some sort of shooting range, with the marksmen standing on the side of the range, their hands aiming towards dummies standing about 30 meters in the opposite direction, away from the village. Just like I had seen Ray do before, one of the men conjured a rock from the ground and with a sway of his hand it flung towards the dummy, hitting it dead center in its stomach.

The person next to him did the same, but instead of using one lump of rock, he shattered a rock the size of my infant body into small shards. He completely pulverized the dummy.

The third person in line was up next. It was hard to make out their features, I could only tell that she was a female. Instead of using rock like the two men though, she conjured water out of nothing. For some reason I was surprised, even though I already knew about all the elements mages could wield, but what surprised me more was the fact that she could turn her conjured water into ice.

I could hear violet chuckle to herself

“Looks like Tess is back in town.”

“Who’s Tess?” I asked in my best 3-year-old impression.

“That would be my sister, the one showing off her cryo magic” she said with a grin. “she’ll be staying with us for a few days”

Seems like a good chance to learn more about magic

The rest of my day proceeded as per usual until sunset when Tess settled in. Seeing her up close made it easy to tell that she was related to Violet. She was slightly taller than violet, her lean build and long brown hair making her seem taller than she actually was from my point of view. She turned to face me and kneeled down to meet me at eye level. I wouldn’t call her stunning but since I had a thing for green eyes, I just about fell head over heels.

“Hey little guy, the name’s Tess” she said warmly, extended her hand to me

I decided to speak a bit more maturely than usual. “Nice to meet you miss, I’m Kenny”

After exchanging pleasantries, Raymond came back from his weekly meeting in the town hall and started on dinner, Violet was helping Tess to her room and I was paging through a book.

This is so frustrating. I’ve read everything in Rays’ study and I’m unable to use magic. I haven’t made any progress in life since I learned how to read.

I knew I was getting ahead of myself since I’m only three and still had my life ahead of me, but I was bored out of my mind and wanted to use magic as soon as possible. I wanted to test my limits, see which elements I could use and possibly even become some sort of great mage in the future…

I got pulled out of my thoughts by Tess

“Reading at the age of 3? And about magic no less. Eager to become a mage huh?”

“Yes ma’am. Magic is so cool and after seeing you use ice magic today really intrigued me” I accidentally let a big word slip, Tess didn’t seem to notice though.

She was silent before replying to me. “Well, maybe your parents should let you start training. You seem like a smart enough kid.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, kids aren’t usually taught magic since it can be quite hard to get a good understanding of its nature, it also doesn’t help that most kids are quite reckless. A toddler learning magic can be destructive, you seem like a smart little runt though”

“How do you go about teaching someone magic? These books are pretty much useless in that regard.” I slowly started to let go of my child like speech, hoping she wouldn’t notice.

“Oh, it’s really simple, all you need is another person capable of magic, like me or your parents. You see, they just have to send a bit of pure mana into your body to pinpoint the location of your core. After determining where the most mana is located, the core, you just have to meditate every day, sending the mana in the atmosphere to that spot of your body. Then comes learning the actual method to controlling the mana.”

“And how would I know if I’m actually sending mana into my body when I’m meditating?”

“you’ll know when you feel it for the first time”

When dinner time came, I was preparing myself to pop the question. I felt the anxiety of a nervous teenager hyping himself up to ask out his crush. Dinner was mostly spent talking to Tess asking her about how work was going as an officer in Patria, a large city just south of our village, my mother constantly looking in my direction, furrowing her brows.

Violet finally noticed that I was anxious, asking me what the matter is.

“I’d like to start learning magic” I blurted it out, wanting to just ask them and get the disappointment of rejection over with.

“Wait seriously? That’s great news son!” To my surprise Raymond was the first to speak, a slight glisten visible in his eyes.

“Ray are you sure, isn’t he a bit too young?” Violet was obviously worried

“Nonsense sis, Kenny isn’t some barbarian child. I’m sure he wouldn’t be troublesome”

Yes! Strike the iron while its hot!

“Please mom. I promise I’ll only use magic under your supervision” Another big word slipped out of my mouth, but my puppy eyes were too busy swaying Violet into letting me practice magic.

The room was quiet, me and Ray waiting in suspense for Violet’s answer, the only sound emanating from Tess’s cutlery clanging every so often.

“Give me some time to think about it. I’ll let you know tomorrow morning.” She finally said, unable to refuse my pleas.

The next morning Ray woke me up with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen him wear.

“Time to wake up Ken, let’s go make a mage out of you.”