Throughout the following couple of months, Rheka and I stayed curious about what exactly had happened during that night in the forest. Especially the part in which she seemingly deflected that monster’s attack with her bare hand. We kept pestering the old man about it, but the more we did the more he seemed to distance himself from us. Just when I thought he had finally warmed up to us. Rheka’s mother Visla treated the whole ordeal like it was nothing out of the ordinary, dismissing it as a mere night’s accident. She had always struck me as the most carefree member of the family, but this bordered on... irresponsible. She wasn't this negligent when it came to her husband. Then it’d be all sweat and worries, combined with longing stares through the kitchen window.

Ahh, sweet love. Probably. Not like I’d know.

Regardless, “Magic” was a thing in this otherworldly place, and I knew practically nothing about it. I wasn’t a greedy person per se, but once I’d put something into my mind, I’d try my hardest to get what I wanted. And I simply couldn’t let go of this whole magic mystery. Finally, I'd found something that interested me. Only took me a good three years.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine what fun deeds one might be able to do with the powers of magic! How exactly did it work? What were its limits? Did lizards even get to practice magic?! Those were some of the important questions that kept running through my mind at the time. I was, after all, the type to overthink things quite quickly.

Rheka seemed to share my recently awakened thirst for knowledge as I oftentimes spotted her outside trying to replicate what she’d done that one night in the forest. Hand movement and all. Even though she was half-asleep at the time, she must've had at least some recollection of the incident. Of course, nothing particularly exciting occurred when she threw her empty open hand out in front of her. But it was still entertaining to watch. After that night we’d gotten somewhat closer to each other, as she seemed to strike up random one-sided conversations with me much more often. This was the beginning of a long, mutually beneficial relationship. Or maybe that’s just how it was when kids got older.

Am I just... this kid's imaginary friend?

Personally, it didn’t feel like I was able to work up anything magical in general. Apart from my literal existence, if that counted. Nevertheless, I couldn’t get it out of my head. That feeling of energy rushing through my body. And those lights swirling around me. Calling it exciting would be a sheer understatement. It somehow reminded me of the thrills I’d experience doing mischievous things in my past life. Simply put, I had gotten my first taste of magic and I needed more.

From where though? Visla certainly didn’t seem like she’d know much about it. After all, I hadn’t seen her pull off any imposing displays of magic or rather any magic at all. None of the precious things in my pile of rubble had anything magical going on with them either. Though, I had already seen how gramps created sparks seemingly out of thin air to start fires for the kitchen’s cooking stove. How did I never spend a thought on that one before? Unfortunately, as mentioned prior, the old man was off-limits. And of course, I couldn’t just go ahead and straight up ask someone about it, since you know - my current form of being wasn’t exactly a talkative one. And regardless, he’d begun to keep to his own again, holing himself up in the basement of the house. I would have had more luck figuring it out myself than getting that recluse of a man to exchange some words with me.

What should I do? No plan came to mind. Rheka had been told by Urs to not bother her grandfather. Apparently the geezer had quite a lot on his plate.

After observing the old man for the better part of a month, I had come up with a possible solution to my problem: the basement. Whatever he was doing down there, I thought, it must have something to do with magic. In my mind, the answers to all our questions were down there. And even if they weren’t, at least I’d get to add some items to my collection.

Once a week, gramps would leave the house for the day, returning only when the sun had already set. I’d already figured out that much after carefully studying his routine over the last month. Although, what exactly he’d do away from the house remained a mystery to me.

So, when he left the house once again, I prepared to head down into the basement to satisfy my curiosity. Rheka seemed to be all on board with my plan when I pointed towards the basement door. You know, like dogs do, when they freeze in place, facing their object of desire. One leg in the air? That. I did that. As she and I approached the basement door, we at once found out that to our surprise it... wasn't locked? Guess we’re in luck. The old man spent most of his free time in the basement, so I’d assumed most of his valuable belongings would be behind a locked door. Yet, after just a light shove it was open, and we were greeted by a small stairway.

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Without worrying about the door too much, we strolled down the stairs. It was dark. Only a few objects scattered around the place gave some light to it. Following a quick scan of the room, we spotted a few candle stands here and there, but nothing to light them with.

After carefully stepping across the room, I grabbed one of the bright objects from the shelf next to me with my mouth. It was an oval shaped, azure gem, giving off a faint orange-blue glow. The gem had an almost metally taste to it. As I examined it further, the room began to brighten up a little. Some of the other orbs and crystals scattered around began to glow in response to us moving around. Motion detection lights! How convenient. I slowly turned around to investigate the basement which appeared to be significantly larger than it seemed at first.

Looking around proved to be rather difficult due to my lack of height, yet I managed to get a decent overview of the place. It was a collector’s heaven. I spotted multiple shelves with various items of interest on them, neatly covering the entire left side of the room. Rheka immediately began her personal examination. At the very end of the basement stood a table with a bookrack next to it, slightly tilted to the inside, which made it seem way out of place. Jackpot, I thought, as I made my way towards it with Rheka following right along.

Without a second thought I dropped the orb to the floor and grabbed one of the books off the lower racks. I wasn’t exactly the studious type, nor overly enthusiastic about books in general, but I had read my fair share of literature in my prior life. I did after all, have somewhat of a knack for history. Though generally, I preferred videos and games over reading, but that’s beside the point. And also probably not an option here. Books seemed like the perfect solution to our problem. We had a substantial thirst for knowledge and what better way was there to quench it than with literature?

Ah... I can’t quite read this. Figures. I commented mentally, turning to Rheka with a disappointed look.

Visla sometimes read Rheka bedtime stories, but I'd never paid much attention to the actual writing inside the books before. Either I’d be too invested into the story itself, or I’d fall asleep instantly. I was a busy and easily tired lizard, okay? Besides the occasional annoying surreal dream, I didn’t have any trouble sleeping, that much was clear. Regardless, I told myself that I’d try to focus solely on learning how to read properly in the future. Reading along with Visla could work. I figured. It was an odd feeling. Reading in general was fine, but in my previous life I only ever read actual books as a last resort. Yet here I was, eager to read through the entire bookcase before me in one go. The internet wasn't going to pop up in the next few centuries, if ever. Holding a book was impossible for me of course, but I could at least flip the page with my teeth.

I signaled to Rheka to put the book back in its place, but she chose to just laugh at me instead. We couldn't just bloody leave it flat on the ground like that. It took me a while, but I managed to fumble it back onto the rack. After that I scanned the rest of the room, glossing over the shelves around me. The entire basement was stacked with strange objects. A white scepter, seemingly made from bone, a heavily inscribed red orb, as well as a bronze glove neatly resting on a holder were among the items that immediately caught my attention. Straight away I went over to take a closer look. I was like a kid going to a museum for the first time in its life, touching things without a thought of consequence. Only that I’d eventually be robbing said museum.

I shifted my attention to the red orb and after staring at it for a good five minutes, Rheka finally noticed, came over and lifted it from its place. The moment she did, it started to glow.

Ah, guess they all do that. I thought, before I felt a rapidly increasing warmth radiating from it. The orb started to pulsate violently as I noticed a birdlike form inside of it, like an amber fossil, with an animal encased in it. She dropped it in a visible state of panic. Thank God that it didn’t instantly break when she did.

Startled, but clearly not startled enough, she picked up the next object of interest, the bronze glove. It looked heavy. Not only was the glove way too enormous to possibly fit onto anyone's hand, but it was also solid. Like solid solid. Not something you’d wear as a piece of armor, that’s for sure.

How are we going to take any of this shit? He’s definitely going to notice. Bloody hell.

Needless to say, this man had a serious hoarding problem. Source? Me.

The last thing that needed further inspection was the scepter. As I’d correctly assumed beforehand, it was entirely made of bone. From what animal I could only wonder, but it must’ve taken a lot of effort to form it the way it was. Thing was heavy as hell.

“What's this?” She’d ask me for every item, before I’d return her questions with a slight tilt of my head. How in hell would I know?

We probably spent another hour or two inspecting more peculiar objects around us before we decided to leave for the time being. We didn’t want the old man coming back to his basement in disarray, so we left after carefully placing everything back where it seemingly belonged.

None the wiser when it came to magic - I had at least figured out my first real task; combating my illiteracy.