Tom has decided, arbitrarily, that I am old enough to practice with a wooden sword. In this world it is traditional to learn with two swords. Tom start our practice sessions with a mile of running with both of the wooden swords in our hands. Every once and awhile he will swing at me and I’ll try to block it. After being slammed into the ground a few times I learned to let his sword slide off of mine rather than try to dead stop his swing. After we return home with a few new bruises Fi always seems to wander out and heal me before I do it myself. She’ll then go to the porch and sit with Elena and watches us spar and do other exercises. After a few bouts I’m once again covered in bruises and Fi will run over and heal me.
After training with Tom he will always walk over to me and say something ridiculous. Today it just happened to be true.
“Oh… Aero you seem to take after your father quite a bit. This young and you already have a wonderful woman like Fi chasing after you…” Tom chuckled to himself and winks at Kaya
“That’s right father. I am chasing after Fi!” I exclaimed
Tom looks at me dumfounded as I walk off trailing after a blushing Fi.
“Ha-ha he gets his wit from his mother though!” Elena laughed loudly
I run towards Fi and my next lesson with my cute teacher.
“Aero, today we are going on a short trip.” Fi said happily
“Okay, where are we off too?” I asked
“It hasn’t rained in a while so we are going to sell rain!” Fi said proudly
“Not for free?” I asked
“Of course not! Magicians should be paid for their work! However we don’t charge too much okay just 3 iron pennies for 15 minutes.” She said greedily
Fi pulls open the gate and walks towards the neighboring farms. I have never left my family estate before so I am rather excited to go see the surrounding families. After a few minutes of walking we approach a few people out in the fields to ask them if they need any rain or anything done. Surprisingly Fi is asked to remove rocks from fields and she does so quickly and stacks them on the already made rock walls. Fi also calls upon rain and waters the fields for 15 minutes then plops down clearly exhausted.
“Thank you Miss Fi. Here is your payment and here is a little something extra.” A farmer said and hands Fi a few coins and a small package.
“Thank you.” Fi shows her small smile and opens the package.
Inside of the package is a piece of a bee hive covered in honey. Fi smiles and looks up at me.
“This makes it all worth it. Aero, this is the best thing ever! Honey!”
Fi shoves the whole piece of honey into her mouth and something close to absolute bliss crosses her face. She beams at me with bee wax still on her teeth and giggles happily. She has a problem with sugar. I get the feeling that if you offered her sugar or anything sweet she would do whatever you told her to do. I must protect her from herself but looking at her adorable face I just want to give her more sugar and sweet things.
“Oh, sorry Aero I didn’t give you any… wait here.” Fi said with mixed emotions
She holds out her finger that has honey still on it and blushes. This girl is really too cute. I lick the honey off of her finger. I don’t know if there was something special about the honey of this world but it was very sweet but I think the best part was where I was getting it from. I look up at Fi’s face and see a small amount of honey stuck to her cheek. I plop a kiss on her cheek and the honey disappears.
“Aero… what…” Fi sputtered out
“Nothing, there was honey on your cheek so I go it. It was delicious!” I said happily
Fi blushes and stands up.
“Come on there is work to be done.” She said changing the subject
We walk off to the next farmer who asks for rain and Fi tries but couldn’t manage the last 5 minutes. I quickly add my mana into hers and she makes it till the end. After payment she sits down and once again greedily gobbles down the honey this time I am not offered any but I guess that is fair. We continue this process a few more times before Fi starts to look rather tired. She pushes on however because of those small packages of honey that everyone gives her. After a few more she stumbles and I catch her.
This girl is actually fast asleep and looks so angelic that I can’t bear to wake her. I lift her onto my back and start the trek home. Fi is rather small and isn’t much bigger than me so I don’t have a problem carrying her home. About 100 feet from home Fi wakes up and realizes what happened.
“Hey, Aero you can put me down okay. I’m okay now.” Fi said quietly
“Fi, It’s a man’s job to carry his women home.” I said half joking and half serious
“But aren’t I heavy…” Fi asked
“No, I am trained remember. Fi is as light as a feather.” I said proudly
“Okay then, you may carry me to the gate.” Fi said at a whisper
We travel the rest of the way in silence and when we get to the gate I place Fi gently onto the ground. I open the gate and we walk inside. Tom and Kaya smile at me as Fi pulls me aside.
“Thank you, Aero. I just really like sweet things so I can’t help it…”
“It’s okay, I’ll carry you anytime Fi.” I said proudly
Fi gently kisses my forehead and quickly walks away towards her room. Tom, Elena and Kaya all quickly hide behind the wall and act like they didn’t see anything. Tom however couldn’t hide his smile very well and during training the next day continued to have a stupid smile plastered to his face.
Another year passes and I have my first birthday party. In Alera birthdays are celebrated every 5 years and the biggest are when you turn five, ten and at Fifteen you are considered an adult. After training I went inside to take a bath but instead I am lead into the dining room and before me lies a large cake and everyone is gathered around the table. I am handed four gifts and I open them quickly. Elena’s gift is a hooded dark green cloak with lots of small pockets inside. On the back is a small crest with a snow covered tree.
“Grandmother, what is this crest on the back?” I asked
“Hmm, well that would be your family crest when you get married. It’s a tree covered in white snow because not only are you a White but you are also Night-stalker which is an elven name.” Elena explained
My next gift is from Kaya and it is a book on plants around the world. This is a wonderful gift because not only is it useful but books were really hard to come by and were really expensive.
“Thank you mother this is wonderful.”
“Well you do read a lot so I thought you might enjoy a new book.” Kaya said happily
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Kaya walks over to me and kisses me on the forehead.
Tom’s gift is two swords. They are masterfully crafted and perfectly balanced. The two sheathes are able to be worn at the side or on the back. The swords of this world are slightly curved and only have small cross guards to protect your hands. Before I can say my thanks Tom starts up in a serious tone.
“Aero, these are not toys. They are tools for killing and they must be treated as such. A man should only use them to protect the weak or his friends and family.” Tom said seriously
“Yes sir. I understand.” I said
Tom has a proud look plastered on his face. As he starts to continue his lecture Kaya shoots him a look and he swallows the rest of his lecture and sits back down. Fi moves over and hands me a small box. She sits back down and looks at me excitedly while I open the box. Inside is a small amulet with a rather intricate design. It is cool to the touch even though it is made of wood and it gives off a flowery smell like the one that Fi gives off.
“That is a very special amulet. It is given by my race to people who are special to us. If you are ever near any of the demon race they will be more likely to treat you like a friend rather than an outsider.” Fi explained.
“Thanks Fi, That sounds pretty useful.” I said while smiling
“But some of the other tribes in my race might see it and attack anyway… but it should help more than it hurts… Hopefully.” Fi said slowly losing confidence in her words
“Well thank you… I’m sure that it will all work out.” I said brightly
I place the amulet around my neck and tuck it in my shirt. Fi looks at me rather happily and smiles. As if a response to Fi’s happiness the amulet heats up and warms my chest.
Over the next couple days I begin to notice a response from the amulet depending on Fi’s emotions. When we go out to help in the fields, Fi always gets paid with coin and honey, it feels warm. When all of the honey is gone the amulet goes back to a cool temperature as Fi regains control of her emotions and her sleepy look slides back over her face.
“Hey, Fi does this amulet convey your emotions by temperature?” I asked
“Hmm… well the amulet has my mana in it so it’s possible… I don’t really know I was taught to make it when I was about your age. I was supposed to make it for someone who is important to me but I don’t really know what it does.” Fi explained
“Oh… So I’m special to you then?” I said teasingly
“Well… you’re a very special student… and you act so mature…” Fi sputtered out
“Oh well thank you…” I said rather embarrassed at her honesty
“Okay well… let’s get back to lessons” Fi said awkwardly
A few more months flew by and still nothing from heaven or from Ella. I am quickly mastering magic but my growth in swordplay leaves something to be desired. Tom has started to spar with me every day but I am constantly beat down with very little signs of any kind of improvement. It is to be expected because Tom is ridiculously strong and I am still learning but it is still frustrating to not even score a single hit. Fi has mentioned that my graduation is coming up soon but what that means has escaped me.
“Today we are going to do a final test and if you pass you can call yourself a Master rank magician like me.” Fi said rather sadly
Fi has been losing confidence in her talent as a magician since she has been my teacher. I can’t really blame her because if a five year old was showing me up I would be pretty frustrated. Fi drags me to the forest for the test because the magic that we are going to do could be dangerous.
“Okay, Aero, we are going to perform a summoning without a magic circle. This can go badly but we are just going to do a small summon. All I want you to do is summon a bird.” Fi explained
“Just a bird?” I asked
“Well… let me show you… I summon the bird of life, who flies on the warm wind. Come forth and serve your new master.” Fi chanted
A small flash of light turns into a small brown colored bird. The bird flutters down and lands softly on Fi’s shoulder. The bird looks at me, quickly loses interest and starts to play with Fi’s hair. Fi gently reaches out and pets the little bird on the head.
“See easy right? It’s not hard and it’s a short chant but you don’t need it right?” Fi said teasingly
Fi has always been able to beat me in summoning. I haven’t been able to do any kind of summoning without a magic circle. Of course she would chose the only kind of magic that I struggle with to test me on.
“Okay, give me a minute.” I said
“Oh so my genius student needs a minute. Well, I guess I still have a lot to teach you then.” Fi said with her eyes shimmering with laughter.
I move away from my small teacher and think for a moment about why I haven’t been able to summon anything without a magic circle. I understand the feeling of summoning magic but I haven’t understood the visual aspect behind it. I relax and focus on an image of a bird but I can’t keep the image of a small bird. I changed my image to one I am more familiar with and land on an Eagle. A bright flash of red light appears in front of me and an eagle flies out and lands on my outstretched arm.
“What… wow Aero that is amazing I have never seen this kind of bird before what is it?” Fi asked amazed
I looked at the eagle and it looked back at me. I guess that Alera doesn’t have any big birds like my eagle.
“Oh well… I saw it in a book and it just came to me…” I lied
“Hmm… That shouldn’t be possible…” Fi quietly said
As if to force me to talk the eagle pecks me on the check. It stares at me with surprising intelligence in its eyes almost saying make up something already.
“What was that Fi?”
“Oh nothing… Usually you have to be familiar with something before you can summon it if you have just read about it you normally can’t.”
“Oh I get it… wait, Fi why didn’t you tell me that?”
Fi dances away from my grasp and runs off deeper into the woods.
“Wait… Fi.” I shouted after her
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AN: Romance is blooming!! Okay, well he's five so nothing XXX yet. His mental age should be around 26 so he is mature in his thoughts though... well if you think about it isn't every story about reincarnation technically full of guys who are like 40 mentally chasing 16 year olds anyway?
Just my thoughts age is just a number but below 18 are not to be touched only admired! Remember the rules of Lolicon "Protect, Look but no touch!!"
(The Author is in no way a Lolicon and is a fan of the Onee-sans/ older girls.)