Chapter 3: Magic?

It looks like this society’s technology advanced much faster than the ones on earth. They already invented things like, for example, school. Although, this was magic school.

A school where young people like me could learn to control a complex system like magic. Oh, and by young people, I mean 4 years older than me. 14.

“So 4 more years before I can understand magic.” I thought to myself. I was sitting down in a chair at a small desk at the front window of my new house. Akafmowa was sitting in the other room.

Akafmowa didn’t talk much. She didn’t have any other kids, or even a husband, but she did know how to take care of me, so I wasn’t too bummed out.

Actually, I think she is a bit mysterious though. Once, I walked into her room, and before I could even see what she was doing, I was thrown out. Akafmowa seemed… Like she was keeping a secret from me.

I watched the kids play outdoors, when Akafmowa approached me.

“You know you can play with them if you want.” Akafmowa said.

“I don’t know. I feel like I wouldn’t fit in”

“No, I think you would fit in just fine. Even if you don’t fit in perfectly, you’re all boys. You can understand each other through that alone.” Akafmowa is this exact kind of person. She is always telling me to make friends, as weird as it might be for a high school student to make friends with an elementary kid.

“Thanks.” I said, as I got out of the chair, and went outside.

I met 3 other boys. Younuaka, (Yo-noo-a-ka) Jhounka, (Jon-ka) and Hagagoka. (Ha-ga-go-ka) All of them were kids that just thought stuff was cool, so they went to see that stuff. That day, I adventured all around the village, seeing many things.

In fact, I did this for the next year of my life. Me and my friends would wander around, find something interesting, (whether it being a bug, or a tree, or something else.) Over-examine it, then find the next thing.

That was my daily schedule.

After 365 days, I could conclude that one Akafwhuwa season was 1 year long.

I also learned about the culture of this village, or as I’m told, the entire country.

The people followed two Gods, praying to them for different reasons. One to create beautiful things, and one to destroy ugly, or bad things.

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At this point, I have no idea where I fall religion-wise. I believe in God, since I literally saw him, but I don’t know. Is he the same God that I was taught about on Earth, or is he completely different?

Year 501, My Birthday

On the morning of my birthday, I forgot it was my birthday. In fact, to clarify, this is my Earth birthday. I had almost forgotten what my Earth birthday was, until the calendar I made reminded me of it.

I went, once again, to hang out with my friends. We were going to go to the mountains to the east of the village. Although, people here didn’t call it “East” they called it Sunwo. Or, where the sun rises.

I told Akafmowa I would be back by sunset.

We got to the mountain area, and decided we were going to get to the top, no matter what.

Well, to be honest, it wasn’t that difficult to get to the top! We found a river, and sat by it for a while. When the sun was starting to set, we decided to head back. Well, what I said earlier was that it wasn’t that difficult to get to the top. Getting down was a different thing entirely.

When we were grabbing our stuff, Jhounka fell. And that wasn’t the end of it. He fell right into a monster nest. The monsters were large, bird like figures, but they were tall as a human when standing on two feet.

The monsters saw where Jhounka came from, and flew up to where we were. We only had one escape route.

Me and my friends were all very good at holding our breaths, I mean, what were you supposed to do in a world like this? I grabbed hold of Younuaka and Hagagoka, and dove into the pond where the monsters couldn’t fly down and get us.

Bad idea. The water was freezing cold. But we stayed anyway. Surely the monsters will leave at some point. Right? Some point?

We were in the pond for 10 minutes. Freezing there. It’s amazing we didn’t freeze to death.

After 15 minutes the monsters left, and I kicked up to the top of the pond, and swam over to land.

Thank God everyone could swim.

By the time we were left alone, Jhounka was too. That doesn’t mean he was in full shape.

They got one of his arms. His left arm was gone.

The rest of us picked up Jhounka, and brought him back to the village. But by that time, it was too late.

Jhounka was gone. He lost too much blood.

I grabbed a knife, and stabbed it into the wall.

“SCREW THIS!”

I pulled the knife back out of the wall, and ran home.

I locked myself in my room for about an hour.

Then 2 hours.

Then 3 hours.

At some point, I stopped counting hours, and began counting days.

2 days.

3 days.

5 days.

7 days.

I was in my room for 7 days, when I finally decided to come out.

The first thing I wanted to do was thank Akafmowa. Despite my attitude, the whole 7 days she brought food and water to me. So I headed to her room. She was facing the other wall, doing something.

I got closer, and it was revealed to me that she was doing magic. I wasn’t sure what kind, but I could tell, it was magic.

I had never seen magic at this point. I just heard about it.

“Akafmowa?” I asked.

Akafmowa got up as fast as she could, ran over, and gave me a hug.

And for the first time ever, I truly heard my name in this world.

“Iro!” Akafmowa cried.

The entire time I was in my room, I was questioning whether I should really be in this world. But now, I know for sure. People in this world care about me. Akafmowa is the most caring mother I’ve had.

I could never thank Akafmowa. I tried of course, but I could never get the words out between both of our tears.