Jimoel spotted a large buck and a couple of does on the other side of the clearing. They were too far to shoot with complete certainty, but close enough that he could reasonably chance it. Quietly, Jimoel rose to his knees from his previous crawling position.

Slowly as he could, he pulled an arrow from his quiver and nocked it. Doing his best to keep the bow from creaking, he pulled until he could no more. He aimed at the buck and loosed his arrow.

It flew through the air, slammed into the side of the deer. In an instant after the arrow hit, all the deer sprinted off in different directions.

Jimoel stood up and walked to the other side of the clearing. He gathered his arrow, which had flown clean through, and searched for the trail of blood. It didn't take long to find the marks, but it was far from easy to follow. "Damn, I missed the heart," he mumbled to himself as he started his work of finding his buck.

It was now close to midday, and his deer had still not been found, but its trail was getting thicker. It had slowed down and bled more, a good sign. However, the path of blood led into a cave, which was not good at all. Sighing, Jimoel grabbed a few large sticks and wrapped the top half of them with wax coated cloth. He lit one of his new torches and walked into the cave.

Following the blood was now much harder. The floor reflected the light of his torch all over the walls. He slowly made his way down the oddly linear cave doing his best to avoid the puddles. At least I won't get lost he thought to himself.

Jimoel almost lost the trail as it veered off to the side of the cave, towards the wall. Confused, but still intent on finding the buck, he followed. He was surprised by a small opening in the cave wall only just big enough for the deer to go through without squeezing.

The opening led to a perfectly straight, oddly dry and dusty hallway. Halfway down the hall lay his dead quarry. At the other end of this strange hallway, was a room with a pedestal and a glowing stone atop it.

While batting down cobwebs with his bow, he approached the room. As he did, his confusion and curiosity grew. He recognized the stone glowing in the middle of the room.

"Why is there a reading stone here? Aren’t those for the rich merchants and mages?" he mumbled to himself.

Could there be someone here setting up a trap? he thought, quickly snuffing his torch before he could be spotted. Getting close to the wall and walking on his toes, he did his best to sneak.

After approaching to the entrance, he looked into the room, and what was there stunned him even more than the reading stone.

"Books!" he gasped out. Quickly, he covered his mouth and glanced around, luckily, he was alone.

This place must be abandoned he thought. Standing up and quickly skimming the room for something dangerous once again, he cautiously neared the pedestal holding the stone.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

He wasn't going to pass up a chance to learn to read and write. That kind of skill could propel a family from the bottom of society to the wealthier end on its own. Looking around one last time, he moved to the other side of the pedestal, making sure he could see the entrance to the room. Slowly, he brought his hand to the glowing stone.

Immediately, as he touched it, pain shot through his hand as though it was being bored through, but he was unable to drop the stone from his grip. Grunting and grinding his teeth, he tried his best to endure the pain. As the pain increased in intensity, his knees collapsed to his knees. Gasping for air as he the shadows on the edges of his vision started creeping in. His pain increased as he slipped into unconsciousness.

A few minutes later, as the pain subsided, he awoke and stood up from the fetal position he had found himself in and dusted himself off. He had heard that reading stones hurt but he wasn’t expecting that. He glanced at the now dim stone before striking his torch to life once again.

Noticing the walls lined with sconces, he filled them with his spare torches. Excited to test out his new skill, he set about scanning the bookshelves inlaid in the walls of the circular room.

Starting with the bookshelf closest to the entrance, he wiped off the dust from the spines of a few of them. "Magic books!" he exclaimed as he read the titles. He looked for some beginner magic books, finding four close by, he put them in the pockets lining the inside of his jacket.

The books he took were "Beginner Dark Magics: Transmutation", "Beginner Dark Magics: Imps", "Beginner Light Magics: Truth Detection", and "Beginner Neutral Magics: Stonemoulding".

After gathering the books and extinguishing the torches, getting ready to leave, he almost forgot about his original prize; enough food for a week and antlers and hides to sell to the local stores.

---

The sun was nearing the horizon as he approached his home, he had already butchered the deer outside the cave so all he had with him was a rough sack made out of the deer's hide, filled with meat, and antlers, along with the gear he left with originally.

As he walked through the door, he noticed his father was already back and seemingly empty handed, judging by the disappointed look on his face.

"I gave you a head start and you still couldn't get anything?" he said while winking to his little sister Loa who giggled at their father’s expense.

"At least it doesn't take me all day to track and butcher a deer, when I do get one I'm done in 2 hours!" his father replied playfully glaring at his two children.

Laughing while walking to his room to remove his coat and hide the dark magic books, Jimoel was excited to let his family know what he found. A few moments later, he walked out of his room with a book behind his back.

"Well, I've got an excuse for taking so long and it's one we can all get excited about. I found something while tracking my deer," he announced while taking one of the books from behind his back, the book on neutral magic, and the dimly glowing, spent reading stone.

Smiling at the looks on their faces, he started to explain.

"I missed the heart of my buck, so it ran quite far. It ran right into some cave out in the woods. The cave was amazing! It had this reading stone that wasn't used, and it had bookshelves full of books in an abandoned room! I looked around and I found two beginner magic books, this is a neutral magic book and the other is a light magic book," he stated before staying silent to let them both take in what he had just said. After a few minutes of thinking, someone finally spoke.

"You just found that in one of those caves in the woods? How is that possible? No, I guess that's not important now. Have you looked inside any of the books? Which do you plan on learning first? What are the spells?" his father rapidly asked.

"What kinds of other books did you find in there? Were there stories or recipes? Oh! What affinity do you have?" sister fired off right after their father.

"One question at a time! I can't think if you ask questions too fast. You first father," Jimoel said while still smiling, excited at the opportunity to learn all the magic he could from that place.