Later in the day, around five-thirty, my father asked me if I wanted to go out and train some, seeing as we had a surprising amount of time to spend which didn't come often.
Genuinely wanting to go out and get some exercise in, still briefly remembering what had happened earlier in the day. I was reminded how exercise was always something that I would do to take my mind off of life… well, my first one that is.
Hoping that we would be sparing again, I began to walk down the hall to grab the two of us our wooden swords, but my father stopped me saying, "No swords today. I wanna work on magic and just some regular exercise."
Bummed out by this, I sulked back towards the door, saying, "But I wanted to spar."
"I know. You always want to spar, but today I think you might enjoy it even more," My father muttered with a hint of foreboding, which only served to prove that I was indeed not going to enjoy our 'training' for today.
I stepped out the door only to discover that it was a relatively nice day out, especially for one of the latter days in autumn. It wasn't too cold, but it wasn't so warm that you could wear shorts and a short-sleeve shirt without being uncomfortable. Thinking back on it, it may not have been too bad to sit outside with my parents this morning. Still, at the same time, I didn't want to try to replace the memory of when I was told about my parents with a different memory. While it broke me when I was told, that broken piece that still has never truly healed is a part of what makes me who I am.
I feel like I need that to be a part of who I am, so I can stay the person I am and become the person I want to be in the future. If I replace my old family with Michal and Aleana, I feel that I would lose a part of myself.
With the self-deprecating spiral that I was beginning to fall into, I hoped that Michal would get out here faster. Make me start training sooner, so I can focus on something else.
Surprisingly my wish was granted. Right as I finished my thought, my father stepped through the door, startling me, causing me to let out a small yelp, which sounded utterly pathetic in my five-year-old voice. After hearing that, my dad burst out laughing loudly, exclaiming how funny it was around choked breaths from how hard he was laughing.
After a while of his incessant wheezing, we finally made it out to the middle of our yard, where we finally began our training. The way that he described it made it sound relatively simple, but actually doing it, I felt like that would be a different story.
He described it in a series of sets. First, we would do a run around the village together. It wasn't a marathon by any means, but it was also not a short run. After our run, when we got to the house, my dad began to give me instructions for a new spell, but that new spell also came with a warning.
He was going to teach me my first spell that could properly be used for attacking something, or god forbid, someone else. It was a relatively simple spell. It was a wind blade.
My father taught me the lengthy incantation used to cast wind blade. With it being a longer incantation, I was able to dissect it. By the way, it sounded different parts of the chant affected different parts of the spell. A piece of the incantation was "fast as wind." It was how you affected the speed of the spell. With it being the baseline of the speed for the spell, if you thought hard enough, you could launch it at an even faster pace.
After that small revelation, I thought about bringing it up to my father, asking him if that was truly how casting a proper spell worked, but at the same time, I felt like that wasn't something that a five-year-old was supposed to figure out. Especially not as quick as I did… well, if that even was how a spell worked.
Climbing out of my thoughts, I heard my father uttering more about how this is a dangerous spell that could go wrong quickly.
"... Careful if you don't control it properly it could hurt someone. You have to focus on pushing your mana out into a blade and focus on the shape, not the sharpness when you are first starting. Adam are you even listening to me?"
Worried that he finally noticed I wasn't paying attention, I breathlessly sputtered, "Ye-yeah, I am listening."
"Oh yeah. Then what did I just say?" my father asked, not believing my blatant lie.
Repeating what I had just heard, I said, "Focus on the shape of the blade, not how sharp it is."
"Ok, now what about before that."
Instantly my confidence was doused like water poured on a campfire. He had definitely seen through my lie. "Uhh. Something about being careful?" I said in an unconfident tone.
"Since you WERN'T listening to me, I'm gonna restart, and you will listen this time, do you understand," my father snapped angrily.
"Yes I understand," I sulked.
"Ok, first, the incantation the way it goes is form sh-" my father started before I cut him off, saying, "I already know what the incantation is."
Angary again, my father hissed, "Ok, but don't cut me off like that next time please."
"Alright I'm sorry dad."
"It's ok. The next thing is that the spell is dangerous, and this isn't me being an overprotective dad. This is me already starting to regret teaching you a battle spell, but with the increase of beast attacks happening at the village's gates, I'm getting concerned. So be careful. This spell can cut off limbs if you're not being careful and not protecting yourself with mana.
"That is why we have been doing so much body exercise and mana training without learning spells, as well as the absurd amount of sparring that we have been doing. It is all so you can properly protect yourself with mana. Got that?"
With all of it now coming together in my head, I exclaimed, "That makes so much more sense now. I had asked to learn new spells a bunch, and that is why you always told me that we could do it later."
"Exactly. It's just because I don't want you to get hurt buddy," my father said while he reached over and ruffed up my hair.
My father and I talked about the safety of the spell and other magic-related things for a short while longer before the part that I was really excited for happened. I was finally allowed to cast the wind blade spell.
My father and I had walked more or less to the center of our small yard, where my dad first showed me the spell. It was amazing, it was such a simple spell, but it had so much to it. You could see the wisps of green warp around the light green crescent when you are looking for the mana, but it is completely invisible if you aren't focused on it. It was nothing like how the other elements work. With all of the other elements that I had seen, it was visible when the magic was at work.
You could see the fire with its jagged edges forming into specific shapes, the water flowing into forms that looked as if they were still alive, and the smoothness but roughness of earth magic. Wind magic was in its own category. The only form of magic that I regret not having seen yet was gravity magic. It seems so surreal from the little bits I had heard about.
Then it was my turn. Looking down and around the yard. I looked down at my first ever spellbook, the sun shining off of it giving the whole thing an ethereal silver hue. Continuing to take in my surroundings before I cast the spell, I finally made it down to looking at myself. Looking down at my hands, I saw the ring that my parents had given me for my birthday, still too big to wear on any finger other than my thumb, but still there, giving me the confidence to cast this spell.
Then I did it. I recited the incantation so quiet that I could barely hear it, then the same as when I cast my first spell, wind burst, it was like the instructions were given straight to me through what felt like a telepathic link to something, and finally, it cast. My first ever battle spell was sent flying.
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