Two months have officially passed since I had reincarnated into my new self. Since then, the situation has developed and my life is a lot less of a mystery than it was upon my arrival. The biggest achievements I can boast about so far is identifying the world I had been transported to, and the fact that winter would soon end. The last one isn't really an achievement, but something me and my parents look forward to. After all it would symbolise the opportunity for my father to return to work and earn more money rather than having to hunt for our food. 

My father is our families source of income. The stronghold that keeps our little dingy afloat in the direst of times. Sometimes he'd have to keep his own dingy afloat, quite literally. He was a fisherman after all. This made it all so much harder for our family to survive through the winter period.

A thick layer of glacier decorated the waters which were already so enigmatic. Their ravishing royal blue currents that dashed cohesively in a singular direction and safeguarded the life that resided in the ecosystem which was home to them. This was the site that I was unaware of due to my previously privileged lifestyle hailing from a rich family. It concerned me for my parent's ability to uphold themselves during such unwelcoming conditions and the absence of work and money for my father, yet even when a powerful wave of incredible magnitude dashed on them, they responded with the experience and methodical thinking they cultivated, which I considered unusual from such a young couple, alongside they're surprising prowess in the field of combat, or at least my fathers anyway. 

When times like these came about, our father would halt his fishing career to do what's necessary and provide for his family. He was well educated, well-mannered and incredibly gifted in multiple areas that it felt rather out of place that he was a nobody hailing from a non-existent bloodline. 

A question to keep in mind, I noted to myself.

Fast forward another 4 months and half a year had weaved through time like nothing. My mother remained home with me, caring for me and supporting my father who was diligently earning our living after his fishing business resumed from it's winter hiatus. Over this time period, I developed yet more. I had started crawling far sooner than most toddlers would ever hope to and began going through the process of tempering myself. 

I remained seated in a comfortable position I had been placed in by my mother, who's name was apparently Ronny. I had no idea if this was just a cute nickname, but since this was all I had to go off on, so Ronny would suffice. I quickly turned my head to assess my mother, who operated her usual business in the kitchen, with my scarlet eyes glistering in anticipation whilst I licked my lips. 

Over these months I had decided to finally begin the mana filtration process. The mana filtration process is something everyone has to go through before being able to utilise their mana stockpiled in their crux. The crux is a small organ positioned behind the solar plexus and has its very own system interconnected with multiple veins that serve as the transportation till belts that would groom the mana in your intended direction.

Lets...begin!

The mana filtration process involved squeezing out the raw mana in your crux in meagre fragments and allowing your mana veins to install these commands and expand the narrow surfaces that would later be used to launch actual spells. This is key, because if your mana veins remain tightly cork-screwed, there is a possibility of your veins exploding due to the unimaginable amounts of mana required to articulate a spell into reality. The other possibility is the better of the two, but it still doesn't make sense not to go through this process even if it's largely time consuming. The risk of not doing so, doesn't have any outweighing rewards, just lessons that you may never be able to apply ever again. 

Breathe in, breathe out.

I centred all my intent into the deeply imbedded crux, gradually letting more and more mana pass through each rotation. The sensation tingled, like electricity surging through your body ever so prudently and zapping you in concentrated places where I had steered the mana to output to. My argent hair, which blissfully reflected the morning light impeding through the window, poised itself with the charge gliding through strand to strand erecting it in curled licks. I shut out my vision, digging further into the depths of my crux and manifesting my spirit inside of it. A passionate heat blasted like a volcano inside, erupting with the vicious instinctual memory that had transferred over of scorched blood I would splatter over a field of lily's in my former life. 

The energy liberated from my crux, would feel suffocating for anyone else, but for someone who was moulded by the heat of turbid blood tinting their white skin, this heatwave of the solitude nurtured in battle that had garnered felt easing. I let go of the frantic feeling that had clutched my heart once more and revealed my eyes. 

huff, huff, huff, huff.

My poor stamina that resulted from this body collapsed in exhaustion on the chair. My eyes met my mothers gentle glow and she giggled at what she thought was a cutesy act. 

If only you knew the intensity I just faced, mother, would you look at me the same?

"Happy birthday, Elias Ashburn!!" My parent's jumped out in an animated fashion exceeding their usual levels of excitement by a milestone as my first birthday came around. A whole year in this atrocity of a body that kept me up at nights had been put past me. Finally. 

 They smiled vibrantly at me, even now that winter was back in full swing, embracing me in their arms and cheering me on with a muffled tone as their noses were chock-full of snot. It almost forced a grin out of me, yet I managed to compose myself. Now that I think about, I haven't really acted like a child at all, have I? I haven't wept like a new-born, I hadn't been annoying and as demanding as other new-borns and I progressed at a fast rate giving my parents the hope that the real first carrier of their surname might become a prodigy. I'm not sure if as a parent I'd react the same way, but I guess deep down I'd be happy that my child was so...responsible for his own self most of the time? If you could call it that. 

"Come one, go sit Eli." They whispered in my ear, nudging my back tenderly in the direction of the small wooden table with a few candles adroitly set out in order, encircling a whole roasted pig and other wonderful confectionaries crafted from my mothers magical hands. 

Hesitance swarmed my mind and a deep black mist seeped into the room. The world slowed down for the sake of my own delusions, as the noise dwindled and sank into the viscous lake of blood laid beneath my feet. The feeling of my parents warm touch vanished from the surface of my now frozen skin and there he appeared. 

"I don't regret all I did, and I will continue my revenge...This is just confirmation you won't be here to stop it."

The repetitive sound of his mouth converging in the shape to utter the word revenge sent me into a trance spiralling my focus into my deceased gaze which looked on in disdain at the fury outputted from a screaming Evert.

"El-"

"Eli?"

"Eli!?" The vision receded back into the fluttering nothing as I woke to the shouts of my parents who look concerned at me. My head rigidly spun back and my eye twitching, I nodded with a pseudo plastered  smile to ease their worry. 

"Well go on then Eli. Sit down." They repeated. 

I drained the thought from my conscious and waddled over to my seat where we continued the celebrations and ended it late at night. 

"Goodnight, Eli. Happy birthday." Ronny whispered to me setting me to my bed and giving me a kiss. 

The silence echoed deafeningly. Each creek in the house alerted me and the branches extending from the canopy of the tree rattled against our window, yet all that brought me back to the previous sight this night. It engulfed me, leaving me with one thought.

Is Evert still alive?