Simon giggled as he sat on his bed. His eyes were closed and he was sitting cross legged. His smile stretched across his furry little face. His tail flicked side to side, revealing his pleased state of mind. Just under his skin, Simon was moving mana through his body. It was a meager amount, nearly nothing. Simon didn't care. He knew how it felt now, and he wasn't going to let that feeling go.
It had been a couple weeks since he and his mother had made their way to the village of Hollow Hill. Her mother had been fully healed thanks to the diligent work of Priest Kenly. Just as Mayce had said, his healing was amazing.
While traveling to the village, he and his mother had encountered a group of bandits. His mother had dealt with them quickly thanks to her experience as an adventurer from when she was younger, along with training from someone she trusted. The real trouble had come from the pack of monsters that had rushed them after. His mother had taken a hit while protecting him as they ran.
Thanks Mr. Priest. You made sure my mom wasn't a liar in the end. Simon was truly thankful. What would have taken months of recovery, if not years, was healed in only a week. Another week of bedrest was required due to the blood loss, but after that, she was back to as if the damage had never happened.
He was also thankful to the priest for his gift of knowledge as well. After a few days of recovery for himself, the priest had made time to answer Simon's many questions of Magic, as many as he could at least. The priest didn't use the type of magic that mages do, though he did have basic knowledge that he had imparted.
I gotta make sure I repay him. Simon's heart beat faster as he felt it again, the rush of mana inside him. He wasn't entirely sure the first time he felt it, the silk thin stream he felt at the core of his being, branching along his limbs and out his appendages, his Mana Channels the priest called them.
"All beings have Mana Channels to some degree. It is a core part of one's being. It is said to tie one's soul to their body." Simon wasn't sure if the saying was literal, but a thought in the corner of Simon's mind was very thankful it was right.
The voice of his mother calling his name from the kitchen drew him from exploring the mana inside him. Slipping his small body from the bed, Simon made his way to the eating room where his mother had laid out their plates on a short table that kept the food just a few inches from the dirt floor of their home.
Simon sat down on his legs as his mother taught him as a kitten, patiently waiting for his mother to finish serving breakfast. While she poured the food into the bowls, Simon looked at his mother. She, along with him, was a Shaktara Tora, or a Tiger Beastkin to the humans. Unlike the bright orange fur with black stripes most of their kin are said to have, Simon had snow white fur with silver stripes while his mothers stripes were a darker obsidian. Her eyes were an emerald green while his were a deep purple. His mother's hairstyle on her head was braided behind her head, keeping the hair from her face. Not a strand was out of place.
Simon gazed at his mother with an open mouth. "Mama. You're so pretty." Simon's voice was soft and filled with childlike adoration.
His mother chuckled and sat on the other side of the table like Simon had. "You say that every morning, kitten."
Simon grinned and gave his mother a thumbs up. "Kuz it's true, mama. You're the prettiest in the land."
His mother stifled a laugh and waved one paw as the other covered her face. "Come now, kitten. Stop flattering your own mother like that." She smiled warmly as she watched her son start eating. "I still see your father in you sometimes."
Simon's ears perked. "Papa?" He swallowed his full mouth before continuing. "How so?"
His mother sighed and swirled her oatmeal, covering the fresh fruit in the warm grain mush. "The first thing he would always do when he saw me was flatter my looks. He was such a womanizer." After a moment of processing, his mother's face turned stern and she glared at her child. "Don't you ever talk to a girl like that, you understand me? I don't wanna hear about how the village girls are suddenly flocking to you because you went and called them pretty. If you start talking to girls with that cute face, they'll swoon like they did to your father. I swear -"
Simon shrunk down, not having expected his mother to suddenly start lecturing him. He nodded and kept quiet as she continued.
Hours later, Simon found himself alone as his mother went shopping. He had opted to stay home. He promised to stay inside and not leave or let anyone in. He had no intention to do either. Instead, the moment she left, Simon had run back to his bedroom and sat on his bed once again.
He had experiments to conduct.
After another hour of poking and prodding with his intent, Simon had started to learn a few things about the mana inside him. First, he could move bits of it at first, but as he started to flex his intent on the mana, he felt like he was stretching a new limb for the first time, though it was only inside him. Second, he had a core of sorts. While he was feeling around inside himself, he felt the small spherical shape of slightly condensed mana. It was meager and weak. The shape was less a sphere and more of a mist that barely filled a sphere. Third, the mana traveled very specifically inside his body, following predetermined pathways along his limbs, his Mana Channels.
Simon concluded a few things. First, he knew nothing about what he was doing, so he should be extra careful if he were to do anything. Second, he knew he could manipulate the mana to a degree, and that he would get better the more he did. Third, he needed to find a way to make the strange sphere better somehow.
Maybe if I fill it with mana. Almost instinctively, Simon started nudging some of the mana into the sphere. The mana seemed to disappear as it diluted into the mana already in the sphere. There was a microscopic change that Simon felt like a growth itch.
Simon's heart pounded as he started nudging more and more mana into the sphere, careful to keep the flow calm and steady despite the adrenaline rushing through his veins. He was thrilled for reasons unknown to him. All he did know was that this felt right to him. This was fundamental and important and he needed to keep doing this.
Simon kept the flow of mana into his core until he started to feel it sting. Stopping the flow immediately, he pulled his mind back to his room and laid back. He breathed heavily, sore and tired as if he had run for hours. His body felt sore and his muscles felt like they were on fire.
Looking out the window, the sun hung over the forest. Simon pondered the time he spent doing what he did. It must have been a few hours.
I should do this every morning, or before bed. If it's before bed, then I won't hurt all day. But what if it's like exercising like what mama does? She says that it might hurt at first, but the more you do it, the more you get used to it so it doesn't hurt. I will need to keep doing it to find out though.
Resolved to keep trying, Simon let his eyes close to rest some. He felt drained of energy, his body sluggish and feeling as if it weighed many times its weight. Within seconds of his eyes being shut, his mind fell into sleep.
—
Mayce sat at the front door of the village inn. He watched the crowd of villagers roam about in their usual routine. Wives chattering along as they took their laundry to and from the river, husbands taking materials to build a new storehouse for the meat the new Shakataran lady started bringing in from the forest.
An echo of a memory rippled across his thoughts. His mother had talked to the Shaktaran lady after she was healed and recovered from her injuries. He had caught bits and pieces from outside the door before he was caught listening in. Something about the tigress having been a hunter or adventurer or something about previous experience? He couldn't make it out through the thick wooden doors.
He had so many questions. Especially about Simon. He had only talked to him for about an hour. The boy was a mere child who had seen his mother in a terrible state. He had comforted the boy to the best of his abilities, and truly hoped they would get to meet again.
He hadn't expected to have to wait so long though. Mayce was eager to make friends.
As if summoned by his thoughts, a trio of children turned the corner of the street, caught sight of Mayce sitting outside the inn, and shouted in excitement.
"Mayce!" The trio ran up. Sarah, the cow farm's eldest of 2, Alexander, the son of the village chief, and Lucy, the daughter of the crops farm.
Sarah spoke first as Lucy and Alexander held their breath. "Any news of the new villagers?"
Mayce could only shake his head. "No hide nor hair." He watched the excited faces of his friends fall in disappointment. He quickly rushed to add. "But I did manage to learn that the mom delivers meat to the inn just before sunset. We just gotta stake out the back door to meet her. Ma said not to bother her too much though."
The trios faces lit with excitement again and Mayce sighed with relief. The past two weeks have been nothing but anticipation and disappointment as they searched the village for any sign of the new kid or his mom.
"Do you think she will let him come play with us?" Lucy looked at her friends with puppy dog eyes filled with hope.
"Only if you promise to not scare him maybe. You can't be rough with everyone like you are with us." Sarah bluntly stated, dropping a bucket of water on her friend's hope. "I for one hope he likes taste testing."
"Maybe if he has no sense of self preservation or taste. I almost died when I ate your 'pot roast'." Alexander heavily quoted the name of the dish, disgusted to even label that Grotesque monstrosity to the actual dish. "I hope the poor guy can be smart enough to not go along with you two. The most deranged girls of the village they say." Alexander shrugged his shoulders as if the titles were out of his hands.
The two girls shouted in unison as they turned their full attention to Alexander. "Hey, who said we are deranged?!?"
Mayce smiled and laughed with the trio as they made fun of each other. He wished Simon would get along with them all and join them in being friends.
It took a few more hours until sundown, and with twilight approaching, the group of children waited on the backside of the inn, keeping themselves occupied with playing pretend.
They did this every so often, one of the four playing a villain as play fighting against their friends before falling in defeat as they were outnumbered, though some with more difficulty than others.
The rules were simple. Everyone chooses an adventurer or villain type. Everyone has found their preferred hero type and villain type. Sarah was partial to the ranger adventurer type, but when she played villain, she would play a mad druid turned dark by some influence. Alexander liked to play hero as a mage, but when he played villain, he would become a dark warlock hell bent on world destruction. Lucy was simple. She liked bashing things with big sticks. Hero, barbarian of fluffy clouds and friendship. Villain, barbarian of blood and destruction. Mayce enjoyed playing hero more than he did playing villain. He always played a paladin or cleric type of adventurer that he thought some of the wandering ones looked like they'd be. Something about always being good and kind resonated with him. When he played the villain, he took inspiration from Sarah and played it off as being corrupted or darkened by alien magic. No one knew if it was a thing or not, so it was agreed on for theatrical drama.
When in case of spells, the names of spells were always shouted and dramatic hand movements were given time for others to play along. Muttering of rules was often made up on the spot spells or abilities, but if arguments entailed, a time out is called for discussion. It rarely happened nowadays, they had all learned their own styles and all had discussed their skills and spells at length in previous social meetings or playtimes.
Sarah was playing mad druid again, Lucy tied up in make believe ropes of thorny vines as she made imaginary animated trees fight off Mayce as Alexander tried to decipher Sarah's newest brain teaser to break her "dark influence" when Esemerelda walked up to the back yard of the inn carrying a number of wild game corpses behind her on a small wooden wagon she was pushing herself.
"The being that plagues me walks on four legs on the first day. The second it harries me on two legs. The third day it grows a third!" Sarah wailed dramatically, her body jolting around as if she were being possessed.
Alexander muttered behind a harried Mayce, fending off the fierce attacks of the make believe trees. "Hurry up Alex, I can't hold off these three trees forever!"
Sarah cried out in horror as she wailed "What about a FOURTH!?!?"
Mayce tumbled to the side as if he was hit by a surprise attack, crying out dramatically before landing a smooth roll into a faked faceplant.
Alexander stared in horror at the looming imaginary trees as he tried to think of the answer to the riddle. "Four legs, two, then three? What kind of monster is it? FIREBOLT!" Alexander waved his hand in one direction, aiming at the animated tree that wasn't swinging a large branch at him.
"NOOO! MY TREE!" Sarah cried in anguish as she dropped to a knee, squeezing every bit of drama she could into her acting.
Esmerelda had to admit, the girl was good. All the kids were pretty good at their make believe from what she saw. They seemed to have done this many times before. The spells were nowhere near accurate or real, but their imagination was remarkable.
She did pity Alexander though. The poor boy seemed to struggle with the butchered riddle. She grinned a Cheshire grin as she whispered along the wind, breathing a bit of mana into her words so Alexander could hear her. "A human child crawls on four, an adult walks on two, an elder carries a cane."
Alexander certainly wasn't expecting to see the tigress peaking from behind the fence, nor was he expecting her voice in his ear. Before the shock got him, the words sank in. "By the old gods! The HUMANS plague you oh dear druid! Expunged them! Agh! Tigress!"
Esmerelda smiled in amusement at the boy's startlement as he noticed her words and her. The shock of the other children only made her laugh more as she resumed pulling her cart along.
"By any chance, is this my welcoming committee today?" She smiled kindly at the children.
The group of children scrambled to round themselves up and huddle together for a rush of hurried words and a loud shout of "WHY NOT?" before the huddle broke and Mayce broke forward to take direction of the groups side.
"Hello miss. We wanted to welcome you to the village. I met you before at my ma's inn." Mayce paused for a moment to allow the woman to remember him before he continued. "I met Simon briefly when y'all arrived, after you um…" Mayce stumbled on his words a bit, unsure of how to approach the topic of her bloodied state.
"After I passed out due to blood loss?" Esmerelda chuckled as she finished his statement.
Mayce nodded and continued. "We haven't seen y'all around, and I didn't wanna bother y'all, but we wanted to invite Simon to come play with us, if you'll allow that is, Ma'am." Mayce rushed his words, his friends eagerly nodding along in agreement and affirmation behind him.
Esmerleda looked at the group with her kind smile and nodded, getting the gist. "I will tell him when I get home that there are some creative kids in town eager to meet him."
The group of children smiled brightly as they cheered with each other, excited about the new kid maybe soon to join them in their games.