Five years. It had been a total of five years since Taylor had started studying magic again and still no progress towards summoning. He crumpled the paper he had made and was writing on and threw it behind him igniting it at the same time.
“Ow!” Came Gaia’s voice “watch where you’re throwing your magic!”
Taylor turned around and saw a small hole in the trunk of the tree that was rapidly healing. He hadn’t sparred with Gaia in almost three years now but hadn’t left mana synch for at least two years. Maintaining that state became second nature to him and it took effort to consciously leave it.
“Oh sorry man,” he mumbled, “I didn’t think I could hurt you.”
Ten years since he had seen his family and he would’ve started to forget what they looked like if it wasn’t for the statues he had made. Deciding it was time to call it for the day as he watched the sun set, he walked around the tree’s trunk to his family’s statues to sit down with them.
Sitting down he used mana to make his wife walk up and sit next to him and he had his kids start a game of tag. He couldn’t help but feel useless. Ten years of study and he still can’t do anything. Was he destined to fail?
Melody walked across the water with Atreus and Becca both older and wearing new clothes Taylor had purchased with gold he made in the nearby town. The guards had learned to just ignore him and he would do what he needed to and leave. Nobody could stop him if they wanted to.
“Hey elf boy!” Melody called, “we got some food! It’ll be done in just a bit so don’t stay over there all day okay?”
Sending his family back to their usual poses he gave a small smile and joined them. He couldn’t nope around forever. Atreus was twenty and Becca was thirteen now. Becca had been a bit distant but that’s to be expected, hormones and all. Atreus picked up the deer and spit its throat like he had been shown.
Atreus had really come into his own, keeping his hair short using some wind magic to create blades of air to cut it. And he was even bulkier than Taylor was.
“Hey dad,” Atreus said with a smile, “I caught this one by myself, no magic!” He was really proud of himself.
“Oh really?” Taylor said impressed, “how did you manage that?”
“I threw a rock at it!” He exclaimed picking up a rock and throwing it as an example.
Taylor watched the rock disappear over the horizon and answered with a whistle. “Good arm you got there!”
Atreus smiled to himself and went about skinning the deer. A few years back they started tanning the hides and using them to make armor and clothing. It was primitive but Taylor was a little OCD so it at least looked nice.
He sat down next to Melody and she rested her head on his shoulder. She had been a bit clingy over the last year but it didn’t bother him much. It was a nice reprieve from the cold statue that was supposed to be his wife.
Recently he had gotten into smithing so he was messing around with that when he got too frustrated with magic. On the side of the tree trunk was a collection of swords and spears along with a shield or two. It was cathartic to hammer out some metal, his frustrations were taken out on the metal, and it seemed to be imparted in the blades. Because of that he refused to allow anyone else to touch them for fear of it doing something bad.
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He wanted to destroy them, but they were so nice and he worked so hard to make them. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He ignored that issue for now to just enjoy some time with his new family. His earth family couldn’t be replaced but he wouldn’t leave these kids alone. He was creeping up on fourth years old now, thirty seven isn’t exactly young. Even if he didn’t look it.
How much longer will it take? He held his hand palm up and muttered under his breath moving his mana. He felt it go into a space above his hand but again, nothing. He put his hand into the grass and grabbed a handful, digging his fingers into the dirt to hide his frustration.
Before he knew it the deer was on the spit and was smelling pretty decent. Gaia had provided them with some of his quaps to go with it. He supposed life could be worse.
• • •
Taylor woke up the next morning to the sound of arguing. “It’ll just be a short trip I promise!” Becca pleaded.
“I said no and that’s final, don’t you remember what the humans did to mom? To you?” Atreus said with a stern face that wavered only slightly at the last question.
“This is so unfair!” She stomped her foot, “I just wanted to get some new clothes and see if I could trade some of the pelts we have for them.”
“First off, no” Atreus stood firm, “you can only go if you’re with Melody or dad. Secondly, you can’t trade the pelts. Melody said these are special animals and people would hunt us down for what we have. So dad handles the transactions with gold because everyone already knows not to mess with him.”
“Stop calling him that!” She yelled, “he’s not our dad! Our dad was killed by the humans years ago! Before mom.” She choked up on the last part as her eyes filled with tears.
Atreus tensed up, “he saved our life’s, put you back together and gave us a peaceful life. He has taken care of us, trained us, and taught us everything we know. If that’s not a dad then I don’t know what is.”
“I don’t care!” She screamed releasing a shockwave of air, “I want my real dad back! I want my mom! He didn’t give us a safe life! He trapped us here!”
Atreus was now beet red and shaking slightly, “you take that back. Right…this…second”
“Neh!” Becca yelled getting so angry she fell back into elvish, “sal drag va!” She blasted her brother with a fireball, burning his clothes and singeing his hair.
This surprised Taylor not just because she attacked but because I’m her fury she used mana to force her elvish to come out instead of English to anyone listening. He doubted she did it on purpose which made it all the more curious.
Atreus and Becca both started to gather their mana up to begin casting spells at each other. Unfortunately for them they’re not so elven adoptive father had other ideas. Reaching out with his own mana he halted the movement of both of their mana. Stopping their spells before they could be cast.
“What the fuck?” Atreus asked looking at his hand.
“It failed for you too?” Becca asked seemingly no longer mad, just confused.
Sitting up Taylor brushed the long hair out of his face. “I stopped your spells” he explained after yawning.
“Sibling should fight every now and then,” he sighed, “just not with magic. Well except for Becca, you can use physics enhancement magic to match Atreus.”
“Yeah that sounds fair” Atreus agreed.
“I wanna go to the town.” Becca said stubbornly.
Taylor cracked his neck, “then go, I won’t stop you, just bring melody along or me. I won’t watch you all the time, just keep a lookout with my mana sense to be safe. I’ll also make a sack of gold nuggets you can use for whatever you want if you’re okay with that.”
Becca stood there in silence for a bit. She wanted to go alone. She didn’t want to be babysat again. But the bag of gold was tempting.
“Fine” she said grumpily, “you can come, but I want you to stay at least a block away from me at all times unless I come to you. Got it?”
He gave her a disappointed look, “I don’t have to ‘get’ anything. You could just ask nicely for some private space while you’re in the town and I’ll keep my mana sense away from you in a two or three foot radius. That way I can’t see exactly what you’re doing but I can come help if someone gets too close.”
She simply huffed and sat on the grass, “just tell me when you’re ready to leave.” She grumbled.
The rebellious phase, he knew about it but didn’t expect it. Atreus behaved so well he just didn’t think Becca would be like this. Though he did understand about wanting their parents back. Sometimes he almost resented the elven siblings. They were his kids here, but he didn’t want them. He wanted his girls back. It wasn’t their fault so he refused to take it out on either of them.
Taylor stood up catching a couple of quads that Gaia dropped for him. He tossed one to Becca and said, “catch, I’m good to go now if you’d like.”
She managed to catch the fruit after fumbling it a bit and stood to see the elven man holding a sack that began to fill with some rocky looking material as it bulged out. Soon enough it was filled with gold nuggets the size of grapes.
Taylor tossed the bag to Becca and said, “hope you can keep up, and the bag is all yours.”
She couldn’t hide the small smile that played on her lips as she turned to follow him into the woods. He never ran too fast but just enough to push her. She hated herself for what she said. She knew he heard her. She just missed her old family, it wasn’t his fault. She needed to find some way to apologize without looking dumb. Maybe she can find something at the town.