Teo heaved a deep sigh, after leaving Mr. Atkins' cottage.

He did need someone to teach him and he was thankful for the haggard man's offer, but somehow he found dealing with him quite tiring; a feeling the other party probably reciprocated.

'I know, I should not judge a book by its cover, but his mannerisms are just too creepy,' Teo thought while blushing a little, embarrassed for his inappropriate paranoia.

After accepting the deal with the middle-aged Apprentice Magician, and thus finding himself a new mentor, Teo had finally received his first-ever mission on his long road towards magical supremacy:

"Just sit down somewhere and meditate, try to feel the mana around you or something,"

was the exact phrasing that was thrown at him by his supposed teacher...

Even a complete stranger to Magic, like Teo, could tell, that this was definitely not some secret technique, passed on, from generation to generation. This sounded more like something Granny Goya, who was famous around Ritark for her impressive morning calisthenics, would say.

Still, Teo could not exactly ask for second opinions about this. The only one coming to mind was his friend Markus, who possessed a Fire Element Affinity. Apparently, he could already light small sparks in the air, a few months after his test, but he was training out in the woods with his father right now and was thus unavailable.

Teo would just have to pull through on his own; how hard could it be?

First, he needed a quiet place to concentrate and he already had one in mind. The green hillside, right next to the shallow cliffs at the shore, fit the bill perfectly.

It was quiet, peaceful and most important of all, free from pestering adults!

He carefully selected a comfortable-looking, flat rock beside a gnarly pear tree, already carrying green fruits, and sat down.

The wide, blue-black ocean in front of him and the smooth sea of wide-bladed grass surrounding him, painted a rather majestic scenery as if taken right from a priceless canvas.

Teo, however, had a hard time calming down, with his outright energetic personality.

He decided, to close his eyes and concentrate only on his breathing; at least, that was what Granny Goya always preached about inner peace, to anyone willing (or unwilling) to listen.

Teo could feel the warm rays of sunshine, penetrating the sparse clouds and caressing his skin. He could hear the thunderous waves of the moody North Sea periodically breaking against the jagged rocks of the precipice, exploding into fine droplets, before slowly converging and flowing back, starting the cycle anew.

There where bugs and bees, silently buzzing around the rocky patch of grass, feasting on its wildflowers.

Flowers! Yes, Teo could smell them; not strong, but still perceptible. Their sweet odor mixed with the passing summer breeze, which carried to him the aroma of fresh, green grass and resin from the distant forest, he could almost taste it.

How had he missed these details before sitting down?

Teo fully concentrated on his non-visual senses and the world around him, that he could perceive with them in surprising clarity.

It was actually a very refreshing experience for Teo, who usually only knew to appreciate nature superficially and preferred to play "Magicians and evil Sorcerers" with his friends.

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But something... he could not put his finger on it, but something felt wrong.

He had often visited the easily accessible places around Ritark, such as this, so he already knew all of their features; literally, like his backyard.

Sure, now he did experience it more in-depth than usual, noticing many tiny details...

But did it feel any more magical than any other time he looked around?

Was Magic really like a tiny detail, you could notice, if only you paid enough attention?

He had already been sitting here for one or two hours and did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Maybe he was just looking at it from the wrong perspective.

The idea, to focus on what he could not see, rather than what he could, was already pretty good, he felt...

But were his other senses any more reliable, than his sight? Teo felt deeply conflicted, by this age-old topic of philosophical thought, way surpassing what his young mind could properly comprehend.

Still, epiphany eventually struck him. Mana, or raw Magic, or whatever it was called, could not be seen, touched, smelled or heard (also, probably not tasted), or he would have noticed it long ago!

So there was no point in focusing on his other senses! They were just as useless as his eyes, to perceive the natural Magic in the outside world!

With his newfound understanding of the nature of Magic, he closed his eyes and tried again.

This time, Teo tried, not to rely on his senses. He shut his eyes, held his ears and took in deep mouthfuls of air, not through his nose, obviously. He tried to relax and focus only on his own breathing, completely shutting out all sensory information about his surroundings.

Of course, he did not stop trying to 'feel' the area around him, just that he could not perceive anything noteworthy but the empty space that surrounded him.

Teo simply sat there, mentally 'feeling' through the empty blackness around him, like a blind man, wandering through a desert of nothingness.

He was already nearing his limit, after half an hour of highly tuned perception, utilizing all of his concentration; a feat, still very commendable for a child his age.

Slowly, with time, Teo began to 'see' vague outlines, ethereally floating along with the wind, almost imperceptible. Believing his eyes to be deceiving him, from the piled up exhaustion, he observed them closer.

As if his eyes were gradually adjusting to the dark, after stepping out of a bright room, Teo slowly began to adapt to the emptiness, which surrounded him and the outlines became clearer every second.

There where streams and rivers; loosely bound strands of glowing beauty, flowing through every inch of space around him, first very vague, then almost clearly visible. They wound around some places, rested or sped up at others, racing in every imaginable direction.

By now he could vaguely 'see' the outlines of his surroundings, gently glowing blades of grass and solid boulders, resting atop the flat ground, all of them hungrily absorbing the glowing strands, that dimmed or disappeared in their midst. He could even see tiny specks of light, erratically moving around like fireflies.

With his mind, he followed along a strikingly larger torrent of light, fusing with other streams over his head and hurriedly diving downwards, forming large tendrils, that held onto small globules of light and finally converged into a massive column of brilliance, as bright as the moon, lurking right behind him.

Shocked, Teo jumped to his feet, turned around and burst open his eyes, expecting to find a horror worse than he could imagine, ready to grab him with its tentacles.

Only to find himself alone, staring at the old, fruit-laden pear tree, that silently stood behind him this entire time.

"It... absorbs the light... no, the Mana, from the air around it?!" Teo stammered stupefied.

Teo closed his eyes again, trying to focus on the feeling he had previously experienced. He managed to slip into the unique state of mind much more easily than before, barely taking a few moments of concentration, and began observing the column of light before him.

It was very bright, compared to the surroundings, and closer inspection revealed it to be a bundle, made from thousands of smaller strands of glowing Mana, barely as thick as a hair.

Teo extended his hand, trying to touch it.

"What the... I am... glowing too?" once again the lone boy screamed at a tree for no obvious reason, probably appearing rather funny to outside spectators.

He held his right Hand in front of his face, periodically closing and opening it again. It was solely woven from compressed and tightly wound, spiraling strands of Mana, way brighter than anything he had seen today.

Contrary to the old tree in front of him, he did not seem to simply absorb the strands, he 'breathed' them. They scrimmaged and accumulated inside him, penetrating from his lungs and every pore of his skin, but they also flowed back, resuming their natural course, disappearing in the distance.

'No wonder, there is the old proverb:

"Everything breathes."

I feel like I understand it now,' thought Teo impressed by the complexity of nature and the beauty of Magic. He clenched his fists and finally said full of awe and excitement,

"So this, is Magic!"