The next morning, the fire was already out when I woke up. Smoldering coals were all that was remaining. Fang was curled up around me and seemed very comfortable.

I yawned and rose to my feet. While Fang was a comfortable pillow, I felt stiff not being in a proper bed. Stretching helped, but thoughts of my bed only refreshed the pain of losing everything I had come to know.

Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I looked over my bag, thankfully no pests got into it overnight. I would probably have to thank the giant deterrent of a demon comfortably napping keeping scavengers from getting close.

I was hardly a great cook, the smoked meat from yesterday was far from a substitute for mom’s cooking. Still, needed something to start the day, just could not only live on meat so I needed some options. Maybe there were some fish in the creek to add a bit of variation, or wild fruits in the nearby forest.

Training my magic was my goal while I was here. If I could get it to a usable level I would be better prepared for whatever awaited me. Fang’s cave was safe as far as I could tell. Far safer than being out on my own at least.

I let my companion sleep and started to explore the surroundings more. Looking for any food. Usually, out on hunting trips, we found plenty. The forests around Silvergrove were full of wild berries, and apple trees. Not enough to make an industry for the village out of. But enough to feed the village.

Out this far, I worried there might not be much. I didn’t know exactly how far we were from the village, but Fang’s speed made a galloping horse seem like a snail. We were much further out than any hunting party I knew of went. Usually, it was only a day or 2 walking distance from the village at most. To not stray too far from the ward, even with the portable ward it was dangerous to go too far.

I didn’t feel the pressure I felt in the village anymore. That must have been the ward. So we must be well out of its range. As long as I stayed near Fang though I doubted any weaker demons would come close. But a time would come when I would have to leave Fang and continue to Crosta.

I did find an apple tree not far from the cave. The apples didn’t seem ripe yet though, best to wait on those. Wild berries were plentiful. I snacked on some as I went, the sweet taste helped raise my spirits.

Didn’t seem like there would be many issues food-wise. Not many other animals seemed to come too near the cave, so there was quite a stock. This truly was a perfect place to get used to my new reality.

The creek unfortunately didn’t seem to have much for fish. Areas were too shallow and only the pond area would be able to support any. I had never seen a dam like this, it was made with purpose no doubt. But I was unaware of any animal that would do something like this. Kind of made me wish I paid more attention to Father’s lessons.

Either way, there was nothing there right now. Whatever it was must be brave to hang around so close to Fang.

I headed back to the camp. Fang was awake and just watching me, making no effort to get up. Would probably need to hunt soon, and needed plenty of food to maintain a body like that.

I looked over Fang, I could not tell their gender, in fact, I didn’t know if all demons even had a gender. Living demons were created by pure demons that managed to breed before they passed away, but that was fairly rare. Fang was most likely a pure demon. Though I had not seen Fang bleed so I couldn’t be sure.

The old battle scars told a story of a rough life. The arrow sticking out of Fang’s hind leg seemed to be metal, the feathers on its end long since worn, only leaving a trace that they were once there.

How old was Fang? A demon like this would be a target for the order without a doubt, and any sighting would bring the full might of the Order against it. Given they never succeeded, Fang was not mindless and knew how to pick its battles.

As I pondered, Fang finally started to rise. Struggling a little and stretching its legs. Seemed much like how father would always complain about stiffness in the morning. A sign of age.

After a big yawn, Fang trotted away, heading to go get some food. I could not imagine there was going to be deer as close, so I probably had a good while until Fang returned.

Best to get started on the training. This area was fairly open, so I could practice without causing a major fire, though I still had to use some caution.

I sat and felt my mana. I could feel 2 sources within. One was the familiar fire mana, and the other must be dark mana. I would save any training on dark mana for later. With my current lack of control and the changes that my coming-of-age ceremony made to me, it was best to avoid further physical changes if I could help it.

I tried to direct the mana through my hand. It felt like a flood coming out like there was no inhibitor to stop it once I started moving it. When I was a kid messing with my mana, there was a kind of blockage that made it difficult to try to use it. The ceremony seemed to have gotten rid of that, or at least widened it.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Making attempts to squeeze the channels my mana was going through, I felt a kind of muscle that was ill-suited to the task of stopping the mana. The pressure was just too great and it took too much effort to try and squeeze it.

Stopping the flow of my mana, I tried to squeeze it again. It was still difficult and didn’t even seem like it closed. Just slightly narrowed the channel. The effort was also fairly tiring.

This did not seem right. But I would have to deal with it regardless. My first objective was to train this ‘muscle’ to be able to hold back my mana.

To start with, I didn’t use my mana, just felt all the places I could restrict my mana, and attempted to constrict them without a flow. Everywhere I could do this was difficult. I was going to need some time to be able to get anywhere with this.

Fang returned after a few hours as I was still trying to practice. No big meal this time, just a rabbit they dropped in front of me. I wondered for a moment if Fang didn’t get anything for themselves. But the amount of blood all over their face told me they already ate while out and about.

I thanked Fang and prepared the rabbit for myself. There was no saving anything other than the meat. Fang was not exactly gentle with it. Still, it was good.

Afterward, I took another bath, Fang wagging its tail as I walked to the pond. This time I was better prepared for the eventual wave that hit me. Was Fang having fun doing that? Still, I could not help but laugh at its antics.

In the coming days, I settled into a routine. Practicing to limit the flow of my mana during the day, cooking whatever Fang brought back in the evening, and having to deal with wet Fang every night. Life seemed to settle into a strange normalcy. If living with a giant demon could be called normal.

My practice was not bearing much fruit. Sure there was progress, but even when I felt I could try to pass my mana through, the pressure was just too much to hold back.

Anytime I felt frustrated. Fang would do something stupid and make me laugh and forget about it. Laughing was nice, it helped me keep my thoughts away from home and how the rest of my family was doing.

After a week, I finally managed to keep my mana restricted slightly for a time. There was not much effect on my flame, but it was progress. I could learn to control it.

Alaster must have had a similar issue. Though even though he had his ceremony months before mine, and the order behind him he still was having trouble. So I had to accept it would take time.

Days turned to what felt like weeks. I lost track of the time I was here. I wish I had other clothes, but the armor my father gave me was very durable and showed no signs of wear. Still, I had taken it off a few times to skinny dip a bit, having it on endlessly was a pain.

I did make some simple fur wraps for myself. Fang sometimes left overnight, and without their warm body to lie with, it was fairly cold at night.

My skills were trash though, so I could not do much more than cover myself with them or tie bits around myself. I did have plenty of time to practice, but I was more concerned with being able to use my mana than learning to make proper fur clothes.

The more time I spent with Fang, the more I realized they were much older than I would have initially guessed. They did not make much of a show of it, but the little signs added up over time. For a demon, Fang was elderly.

The strength Fang had was nothing to scoff at, but in the time I was here, they seemed to get weaker. Before I would have assumed I had no chance against Fang, but now I could see a slight blindness in their left eye, they also had to limber up each morning, and the creaking of their joints was quite audible.

I had a feeling one of the reasons Fang saved me was they didn’t want to die alone. I didn’t want to lose Fang now that I had grown so close to them, but the feeling nagged at me more and more as time went by.

My efforts gradually began to pay off. I could not close off my channels if I had my mana flowing, but I could at least power it down to about half. Which let me direct my mana more finely. Rather than out my whole hand, I could send it out my fingers, though there was too much pressure for a single finger yet.

How exactly did spells work though? I knew you could change the form of your mana to a certain extent with spells. But I had no idea where to start with that. The only thing I could do is use my raw mana. But it would have to do for now.

I attempted to try to light up my sword. Directing my mana down the blade. A fire sword would be a useful application, though a kind of overly flashy one.

My control is difficult to keep on the blade. I also had to keep the heat down. The blade was not the best, so I was scared to heat it too much and risk breaking or bending it with the heat.

I wish I could practice with a stick for this, but that would not work with fire magic. There was no metal nearby I could use either. Though my fear of breaking the sword did help me with controlling my mana further.

After what felt like weeks. My control was to a level I could maintain a flame on the sword at a level it didn’t heat it to the point of glowing red. To me, that was the benchmark of too hot. However, any effort at practicing swordplay, while controlling my mana was still quite difficult.

Fang loved to watch me practice. Keeping a good distance after a mishap that singed some hairs on its nose. I was scared Fang might attack me but just sneezed on me instead. The oh-so-vicious demon then scampered away to cool off its nose in the pond, ambushing me with a tidal wave when I joined to clean myself off. Made me feel stupid to doubt this adorable beast.

Finally, I felt my control was good enough for practical application, at least with my sword. I could not use it continuously, but I could make attacks while adding some fire to my sword. How much this would help in a real battle remained to be seen though.

Since coming here, I had seen no other demons, I had not needed to hunt either, so there was nothing for me to test my skills against. I had not killed any demons outside of the one from years ago either. So all my practice could easily be pointless in a real battle. Still, it would have to do.

Next would be dark magic. Unlike fire, I only knew of it as empowering the body directly. Would there even be any spells? Would anyone know of any? I might have to just experiment, but the fear I had that it would further add to my demon features held me back.

But I had to accept it was there, and it was something I was going to need to live with.