Edward Smith 

Unfortunately, there was no time to escape the ever so watchful eyes of Mary and Jon. And so, the only time that I could fully enjoy my time alone and divulge in my desire for knowledge, was at night. And so, clumsily one night, I put my master plan to work.  

My crib wasn’t too high from the floor, it being about two feet tall, so, using all of my strength, I scaled the side of the crib and tied my blankets together, using it as a rope that would allow me to climb back into the crib when I was finished. 

Having successfully escaped the confinement of my crib. Only sustaining minor injuries to my hands and knees as i landed clumsily on the carpeted floor. I initiated phase two of my master escape plan. Opening the bedroom door, which was easily achievable for me by now, by simply going on the tip of my tiptoes and fumbling in the darkness with the handle of the bedroom door, before finally getting a firm enough grasp of the handle and slowly, silently, opening the door. 

“Hehe. Mission successful.”  

I couldn't help but say aloud in my high pitched, two year old voice, before quickly covering my mouth and looking towards the sleeping Jon and Mary, making sure that my outburst didn’t stir the two awake. 

After being sure that the two sleeping adults were officially out for the night. I made my way out into the corridor, and towards the room that read, “Jon’s study.” this was my destination. Fumbling once again for the door handle and opening the door to the study, I had successfully arrived at my destination. And after turning on the light, by dragging a chair over towards the switch and climbing up on it to reach the switch and flicking it on. I was finally ready to read. 

There were a lot of books in Jon’s study, though, due to them being located on a series of bookshelves. There was only a small selection that I had access to. However, in that selection, amongst a huge variety of story books and manuals, I found two books that piqued my interest. Large book named, “A Britannic Empires History. From old world to new. By Dr, Ralph Dior.” and a smaller, slightly older looking book named “Mana and Magic for Beginners. By Dr. Minerva Williams.” 

And so, after a few months of sneaking out at night and reading. My knowledge and understanding of this world had begun to steadily increase. 

Starting of with Mana and Magic for beginners, I had learnt that the small dots that I saw whilst meditating were called Mana particles and the small clump that was gradually forming in my heart was actually called a Mana heart. A sort of internal energy source that allowed a living creature to use magic, just like spiritual power in my old world. 

According to the book, apparently only ten percent of living creatures, both humans and animal, possessed Mana and could use magic. Those who could being labelled as mages if human or magical creatures if animals. Surprisingly in this world, Elves, Dwarves, Giants and Beast folk didn’t exist in this world. Though, legends did say that the Griffins actually possessed above human intellect and even human forms...  

Anyway, from the day of birth to the ages of about ten to eleven, those who will grow up to be mages develop Mana passages and cells. These Mana cells pass through the Mana passages, strengthening, widening them and preparing them for the later stages of taking in natural Mana, which is located all around us in the atmosphere. However, whilst they do so, they also begin to clump together in the heart, thus forming a Mana heart, which is made up of the mages own original Mana. 

However, there is a limit to this, and by the ages of ten to eleven, the Mana cells stop being produced and the mage is left with a clump of Mana in spherical shape as a fully formed Mana heart. Mana hearts varied in size depending on genetics and how quickly their Mana cells flowed and there was currently no way of speeding up the process or boosting it naturally. Though, there were experimental trials currently in progress that were trying to change this. 

On that page, there was a diagram showing the levels at which the Mana heart developed per age. The ages zero to four showing the slow pull of particles, ages five to seven showing a small clump and ages eight to eleven showing a rather large spherical ball, that stated. 

“The average Mana heart is roughly the same size as a golf ball.” 

Reading these pages made me realise a few important things, and that was... the world clearly had a misconception on just how the forming of a Mana heart worked. Well, that was a slight exaggeration. It stated that. 

“There is currently no way of speeding up the awakening process of a mage. It is slow, gradual and takes the average mage the first ten to eleven years of their life to form a fully developed Mana Heart and awaken as either an Enhancer or an Expeller. Though some achieve this in a far shorter time. The youngest awakening known to date being at the tender age of seven.” 

However, from my own knowledge, that wasn’t true. Through meditation, I was able to fast forward the development stage of my Mana heart. I was only two and a half years old right now, but in that short time, My Mana heart, if I had to guess, was in between the ages five to seven and eight to eleven.  

There was a way to speed up the progression of a Mana heart. I didn’t know what the ramifications of doing so were, after all, my Mana cells would still roughly produce until my biological clock stopped them. So, would that mean that my Mana heart would keep on growing larger and larger until they stopped then I’d awake? Or would I awaken, then begin to develop a second Mana Heart?  

I had no answer to that question, and I figured that only time would tell, so there was no point of stressing over something that not even the greatest minds of this time knew about. Of course, I wasn’t blaming anyone for not knowing that meditation was the way to speeding up a mage's development. After all, I was a rather unique case, a two and a half year old with the mental state of a twenty nine and a half year old would easily be able to meditate and strengthen his Mana Heart. Whereas a normal child would struggle to do so for so long.