Chris woke up to a strange man standing over him, he had silver eyes, red hair, and Chris felt a warmth stronger than what he could muster running through his body. A radiant light filled the room as Kayreen sobbed next to Chris' bed. Chris began coughing, and spluttering blood, but slowly the pain began to fade. “The initial treatment is done, now he just needs to rest and let his body take care of itself.” The welcomed feeling of his mother's embrace surrounded him before his vision faded again.
He felt the warmth throughout his body, this time it was his own warmth, and he focused it where he was injured. It was like he was visualizing a light, and was able to move it with enough thought.
The world around him began to come into focus. His eyes slightly crusted, throat dry, and back sore, Chris shuddered to life. It was midday when he fought that boar, but glancing out his window, he noticed how dark it was. He began to sit up, expecting his side to hurt, but it didn’t. He flung his legs off his bed, threw a shirt on, and headed downstairs. He was really hungry. Like the most hungry he’s been since his dad took him camping when he was younger, and they couldn’t catch any food the whole trip.
He peaked around, wondering if his parents were asleep, and saw his dad sitting in his chair, passed out. He poked his dad in the shoulder, “Dad are you okay? What time is it? Also I’m hungry.” His dad suddenly shook to life, and took a second to process everything. “Son, what are you doing down here, you need to rest! You’re injured, how did you get out of bed?”
Chris tilted his head to the side, “It didn’t hurt, and I was super hungry so I came down. Is something wrong, how long has it been since I was hurt?” “It’s only been a day and a half since the boar attack, you need to stay in bed and rest.” “Oh really, so it’s tomorrow night now, huh. Ohh! Who was that one guy with the cool hair, and what happened with the boar, oh, and is Haven ok?” Chris spoke quickly, not wanting to be interrupted.
Geralt placed his hand on Chris’ side, and felt no blood, no indentation, and Chris didn’t react at all. “I’ll answer those questions in a sec bud, but first I want to check your bandages, if that’s okay.” “Go ahead, since you seem so concerned,” Chris mocked. Geralt lifted up Chris' shirt, then began to unwrap his bandages, making sure to not tangle them so if something was wrong he could reuse them. As he pulled the last of them off he saw… well normal skin, no issues, no injuries. Just a simple scar remained after only thirty six hours. It’s almost like nothing happened to Chris.
“That man with the cool hair was a healer, but he wasn’t fully able to heal your wound,” Gerald explained, "Do you know what happened?” “I moved the warmth to my injury.” Geralt looked confused, “What do you mean, the warmth?” Chris almost seemed annoyed at the question, “It's like the warm feeling in your body when you use magic dad, I kept it all around the injury. Now answer my other questions,” Chris pouted.
Geralt's eyes widened, but he quickly recomposed himself. “Fine fine,” he ruffled Chris' hair, “The boar is dead, and his body was butchered up for materials, and as for the boy, he visited earlier today to check on you, so be sure to pay him a visit when daylight comes since I’m sure you won’t be sleeping anytime soon.” Geralt stood up normally, and easily walked into the kitchen. “It’ll probably be daylight here in an hour or two. Come help me cook breakfast, Boar Slayer.” His dad smiled, and they both started laughing.
“Hey dad, what meat are you cooking? It smells really good.” His dad pulled him closer, “Remember how I said the boar was butchered up? Well since you were the one who killed him, we got a bunch of its meat, so I guess your sacrifice was worth it,” Geralt said sarcastically. Chris’ mouth began to water, wiping the drool from his chin as he beamed at Geralt, “I’ve never had boar meat before, I’m super excited. I hope mom likes it. I’m sure she’s worried.”
Chris paused for a moment and then the realization hit him, “Dad, you can walk just fine!” Geralt hugged him, “Yea, the healer that was in the area healed me up too. I’m not perfect, but I’m much better than before.” Chris hugged his father back, “That healer was really cool, he did so much for us!”
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Geralt quickly stepped away from the food, “That reminds me, he also told me to give you this,” His dad handed Chris a book. “When he saw all the books in your room, he said you should add this one to your collection.”
The book looked dull at first glance, made of cheap leather, but the pages themselves were some of the highest quality. Its gray exterior had swirls and symbols covering the front, but Chris didn't pay too much attention to it.
Chris snatched the book and ran it upstairs as fast as he could. He sat down on his bed, and quickly flipped through some of the pages. What that book contained, simply put, an encyclopedia of magic, science, and history. Chris had no idea what had just landed in his lap. He also had no idea that none of this was an accident.
Chris ran back downstairs to help finish breakfast, and his dad went to wake mom up. He was so excited to eat, that he plated everybody’s food, and set the dinner table up. His mom came out, and she looked exhausted, at least, until she saw Chris. She sprang to life, and ran towards Chris, and they embraced each other in a very tight hold. “Look mom, breakfast is ready!”
After breakfast Chris flipped through the book again, and skipped straight past the boring history, and found the science section. It talked about things Chris didn’t really understand. The first page of the book said to accept everything as the truth though, and the man who gave him this, saved him, so Chris, accepting this as the truth, began to read. The theories of magic, mana flowing through our bodies and through the air. Something you can control with willpower and knowledge. The building block of the world.
Imagine tiny particles flowing through the air. By extending what you want, your will, outward, you can control them. The simplest thing you can do is to collect it together in the palm of your hand. By practicing this you can get a gauge on your magic potential as well as gaining the baseline for all other spells.
With that knowledge in mind Chris began, he opened his window, since if mana is in the air, having more air means he can get more, right? He focused, feeling the warmth around his body, and the focus on his palm. He opens his eyes slowly and what he is holding shocked him. It was a large blue orb. “So this is what mana looks like?” he muttered to himself. He held it, and then a thought occurred to him, how strong is this? He went to his window, and aimed away from the town. ‘I’m able to move the mana to my hand, so can I push it away?’ With that thought, the ball suddenly launched from his palm outwards. The ball shot outward and he fell back from the force of the launch.
When he got up he saw trees knocked over and a hole in the ground. Chris was capable of something almost no one knew about. The direct control over mana in his body and in the air. Most people focused on using the mana to create natural phenomena, such as wind or a fireball. Chris on the other hand, controlled the source of that.
His parents ran to get him when they heard the explosion. “Chris, I think the village is under attack! Hurry we gotta go, it came from nearby.” Kayreen looked frantic, but Chris was smiling wide. His mom went to grab him, but he held firm. “Watch,” Chris stated in a very serious tone. He began pooling the mana back together in his hand. The ball grew bright, and this time he decided to compress it. He focused on squeezing the mana together, condensing it to as small of a point as he could muster.
The color changed from dark blue to light blue, and then he threw it out the window nonchalantly. It shot out like a rocket from his hands, crashing through trees and rocks. When it collided with the earth, the shockwave shook the entire area, even scattering birds from the swaying trees. Dust clouds kicked up, and his parents fell to the floor in shock.
What was considered basic level knowledge in this book was unparalleled by over eighty percent of people, and Chris wasn’t stopping there.
After taking Chris down to the village to explain the situation and calm everyone down, there was a stunned silence in the village. No one had believed them, they thought that these disgraced Baron’s were attempting to use a natural disaster as a tool to prop up their child. They also thought they were crazy to bring their injured child out of the house. “Chris, can you please show them what you showed us,” Kayreen said calmly. Chris smiled, “Okay mom, but is it okay if I try something?” Kayreen looked nervous, “Alright, but let us take a step back and make sure you don’t aim it at us,” she stuttered nervously.